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'or shall in future be appointed a member of the House of Lords by the exercise of patronage'.

The Chairman of Ways and Means (Sir Alan Haselhurst): With this, it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: No. 15, in page 1, line 6, at end add

'or shall in future be appointed a member of the House of Lords by the exercise of patronage, by virtue of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, by virtue of the Life Peerages Act 1958 or by virtue of being a bishop or archbishop of the Church of England'.

No. 14, in page 1, line 6, at end add--

'(2) In this Act "the exercise of patronage" means on the recommendation of a Minister of the Crown.'.

New clause 3--Appointments Commission (No. 1)--

'(1) There shall be an Appointments Commission.
(2) The Appointments Commission may nominate members to serve as members of the House of Lords, provided that no such person represents a registered political party.
(3) A registered political party shall be entitled to nominate one member of the Appointments Commission.
(4) The Speaker of the House of Commons shall nominate members of the Appointments Commission who represent no registered political party.
(5) There shall be more members of the Appointments Commission nominated under subsection (4) than nominated under subsection (3).
(6) For the purposes of this section, a registered political party is one registered under the provisions of the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998.'.

New clause 4--Appointments Commission (No. 2)--

'(1) There shall be an Appointments Commission.
(2) The Appointments Commission may nominate members to serve as members of the House of Lords, provided that no such person represents a registered political party.
(3) The Speaker of the House of Commons shall nominate members of the Appointments Commission.
(4) No member of the Appointments Commission shall represent a registered political party.
(5) For the purposes of this section, a registered political party is one registered under the provisions of the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998.'.

New clause 5--Appointments Commission (No. 3)--

'(1) There shall be an Appointments Commission to advise on the proportion of Members of the House of Lords who represent each registered political party and to nominate persons to serve as members of the House of Lords who represent no registered political party.

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(2) When advising on the proportion of members of the House of Lords who represent each registered political party, the Appointments Commission shall adopt the following procedure:
(a) For each registered political party, the number of votes received by that party at the last general election shall be divided by the number of members of the House of Lords who represent that party.
(b) The number of electors who cast no vote at the last general election shall be divided by the number of members of the House of Lords who represent no registered political party.
(3) If the figure calculated under subsection (2)(b) is less than all of the figures calculated under subsection (2)(a), the Appointments Commission shall recommend that the party (or one of the parties) with the highest figure calculated under subsection (2)(a) may nominate a person to serve as a member of the House of Lords.
(4) If the figure calculated under subsection (2)(b) is equal to or greater than all of the figures calculated under subsection (2)(a), the Appointments Commission shall recommend the nomination of a person who represents no registered political party.
(5) Each registered political party shall be entitled to nominate one member of the Appointments Commission.
(6) The Speaker of the House of Commons shall nominate members of the Appointments Commission who represent no registered political party.
(7) There shall be more members of the Appointments Commission nominated under subsection (6) than nominated under subsection (5).
(8) For the purposes of this section, a registered political party is one registered under the provisions of the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998.'. New clause 17--Establishment and function of Appointments Commission--
'(1) There shall be an Appointments Commission
(2) The function of the Commission shall be to make recommendations to Her Majesty for the creation of life peerages; and no life peerage shall be created except in pursuance of such a recommendation.
(3) Before recommending to Her Majesty that a life peerage be conferred upon a person who is a member of a registered political party, the Commission shall consult the leader of that party, but shall be under no obligation to recommend any person nominated by the leader.'. New clause 20--Creation of life peerages--
'(1) During the period while this Act remains in force, recommendations by the Appointments Commission to Her Majesty for the creation of life peerages shall be made in accordance with the following provisions of this section.
(2) Not more than twenty two recommendations shall be made during any period of one year.
(3) Not more than seventeen of the recommendations referred to in subsection (2) shall be for the conferment of a life peerage on a person who is a member of a registered political party; and such recommendations shall be made in proportion to the respective numbers of votes cast for registered political parties at the previous General Election.
(4) This section does not apply to peerages conferred under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 or to peerages conferred by law and custom on archbishops and bishops of the Church of England.'. Amendment No. 11, in title, line 2, after 'about', insert
'appointments to the House of Lords and'.

Mr. Marshall-Andrews: The amendment, which stands in my name and those of several hon. Members, would curtail the use and the endowment of patronage in the appointment of Members of the House of Lords and, by parity of reasoning, thereafter any Chamber that replaces the House of Lords in due course.

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Like the Bill, the amendment is poetically simple. Like the Bill, it is brief, but perfectly formed. Like the Bill, it is modest in its aims and in its aspirations. Also, it is entirely consistent with the aims of the Bill--so consistent that it has been a matter of disappointment to me and those who tabled the amendment that the Government have not felt able to adopt it in this otherwise outstanding legislation. To understand why I say that the amendment is consistent with the aims of the Bill, it is necessary to analyse the true iniquity of the hereditary principle. In Committee, we have spent considerable time debating those iniquities. Primary among them is the obvious iniquity of power being delivered by inheritance. We have said on many occasions that, at the last knocking of the 20th century, it is entirely appropriate that we should, as a matter of urgency, set about creating a genetically modified, or at least a genetically nullified, second Chamber. All those arguments ignore the true vice of the hereditary principle--deferred patronage. Not one person who sits in the House of Lords by reason of the hereditary principle did not, at some stage in his family history, owe that fact to either the patronage of politicians or the largesse of kings. I have no hesitation in saying that history dictates to us that patronage is the curse and the blight of the British political system, and has been for 700 years. The way in which that patronage has been exercised over 700 years has always tended to corrupt for the simplest of all possible reasons: it is transparently the personal donation of favour. The personal donation of favour will always carry with it the reciprocal responsibility that should be aired, and reciprocal responsibilities are the handmaiden of corruption. I suspect that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House, for whom I have boundless respect, would find it difficult to disagree with those remarks.

Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot): Does the hon. and learned Gentleman think that Sir Winston Churchill was corrupted by the award of the honour of a knighthood for services to our country?

Mr. Marshall-Andrews: The hon. Gentleman is one of the great mediaevalists in the Chamber, and one of the very few who has stood fast by the hereditary principle. I admire him enormously for that, but he has failed to listen to what I said. I said that patronage always tends to corrupt. Many people may avoid corruption, but the tendency to corrupt in the body politic is everything. I hope that that is a consistent and reasonable answer to the hon. Gentleman's interesting intervention.

Sir Patrick Cormack: Do the hon. and learned Gentleman's objections to the hereditary principle extend to the monarchy?

Mr. Marshall-Andrews: Yes. I have no hesitation in saying that I am a republican, and have been for as long as I can remember. I am perfectly happy to debate that issue with the hon. Gentleman at any time and in a more

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convenient place. The two issues are not unrelated. Many republicans in the House will find it easy to support the terms of the Bill and the amendment.

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