Hereditary peers are Tony Blair’s unfinished business

It was 22 years ago that the New Labour government began to reform the House of Lords, writes John Rentoul

Peers debate the House of Lords bill (PA)

Bruce Grocott used to teach the British constitution at the Birmingham College of Commerce, now Birmingham City University. Then he became an MP and discovered that it didn’t work the way he taught it at all.

He was then parliamentary private secretary to Tony Blair during Blair’s first term as prime minister, which gave Grocott access to the inner workings of power at the highest level. Thus, he had a small part in one of the great dramas of the new government: the struggle to abolish hereditary peers.

Blair struck a deal with the Conservative peers – behind the back of William Hague, the then-Tory leader – allowing hereditary peerages to be expelled from the House of Lords on the condition that just 92 of them could stay.