House of Lords Bill — Exceptions from the rule that hereditary peers should be abolished — 10 Nov 1999

The majority Aye voters agreed to introduce a new clause into the House of Lords Bill. The clause details the conditions under which hereditary peers can be excused from the principle set out in section 1 that they should be abolished[1].

This clause was implemented because of the Weatherill Amendment (introduced by Lord Weatherill in the House of Lords on 11 May 1999). The Weatherill Amendment enshrined a compromise between Tony Blair and Viscount Cranborne, the Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords from 1994 until 1998. This compromise was agreed in November 1998 where the government could remove the vast majority of hereditary peers from the House of Lords but 92 would still remain. These 92 would be chosen by their peers in the House of Lords.

The reason for this compromise was that Labour didn't want their legislative agenda continuously blocked by Lords unhappy at the removal of hereditary peers[2].

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con109 17 (+2 tell)079.5%
Lab327 (+2 tell) 2079.6%
LDem0 204.3%
UUP3 1040.0%
Total:439 22073.5%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Peter AtkinsonHexhamConno
Crispin BluntReigateCon (front bench)no
Graham BradyAltrincham and Sale WestCon (front bench)no
Kenneth ClarkeRushcliffeConno
David DavisHaltemprice and HowdenCon (front bench)no
Eric ForthBromley and ChislehurstContellno
Mr Norman FowlerSutton ColdfieldConno
Mr Christopher GillLudlowConno
Mrs Teresa GormanBillericayConno
Douglas HoggSleaford and North HykehamConno
Tim LoughtonEast Worthing and ShorehamCon (front bench)no
John RandallUxbridgeCon (front bench)no
Andrew RobathanBlabyCon (front bench)no
Laurence RobertsonTewkesburyCon (front bench)no
David RuffleyBury St EdmundsCon (front bench)no
Richard ShepherdAldridge-BrownhillsCon (front bench)no
Andrew TyrieChichesterCon (front bench)tellno
Peter ViggersGosportConno
Sir Ray WhitneyWycombeConno
Mr Tony BennChesterfieldLabno
Mark FisherStoke-on-Trent CentralLabno
John TaylorStrangfordUUPno

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