House of Lords "dysfunctional and undemocratic" and needs reform, says Green Party peer

1 August 2020, 09:38 | Updated: 1 August 2020, 09:41

Baroness Natalie Bennett on House of Lords peerages

This member of the House of Lords felt that drastic reform in the British political system is needed after the latest peerage announcements.

As 36 peerage nominations to the House of Lords have been announced, Green Party peer Baroness Natalie Bennett was on-air with Andrew Castle to discuss the news.

She simply told Andrew that the nominations highlight "how our current constitution in dysfunctional, outdated, undemocratic and arrived at through a huge number of historical accidents and it needs to change."

Baroness Bennett hinted that the nominations of people close to the Prime Minister, such as his brother Jo Johnson could what spurs a wider conversation around political reform in the UK.

"There's a growing drive around the country saying we need a constitution and a system that works."

As Andrew challenged Baroness Bennett for criticising the House of Lords despite her sitting there, the Green Party peer suggested that the Lords is more democratic than the House of Commons.

"The government has 100% of the power having won 44% of the vote, at least in the House of Lords now...the balance of power is held by the cross-benchers."

"If you make the Lords more democratic it'd make the Commons look even worse than it does now," she added.

Andrew asked Baroness Bennett whether she thought the nomination of new peers was a disgrace, she said that the last thing she noted in the House was that "we have a huge problem in the UK with corruption."

The Green Party peer hinted that reform in the British political system will help weed out the issues people see not only in the House of Lords, but in the House of Commons too.

Andrew Castle baffled by peerages and obvious exclusions