Public overwhelmingly support House of Lords reform going beyond government plans

As the government’s House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill enters report stage in the House of Lords this week (Wednesday), the new polling shows high levels of support for reform and suggests the public wish the government to go further in their changes.  

60% of respondents said they supported the current plans to remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords. 22% believed some or all should remain. This largely reflected a party split, with 2024 Conservative voters more likely to be supportive of the hereditary peers remaining (43%). 

However, a significantly higher proportion (79% (95% if you exclude those responding ‘don’t know or can’t decide’ from YouGov’s figures)) expressed support for limiting the Prime Minister’s authority to appoint new members, supporting a one-in-one-out policy in the upper chamber.  

Additionally, nearly as many (71%) supported restricting the size of the House of Lords (currently over 850 members) to no bigger than the House of Commons (650 members), while only 5% believed that there should be (as now) no limit on the number of members in the House of Lords.  

When asked to choose between removing the hereditary peers or limiting the Prime Minister’s power of appointment, or neither, or both, the reform attracting most support was removing the hereditary peers and limiting the number of appointments (56%). Just 3% of voters chose the current government plan, to remove the hereditary peers without also limiting the number of appointments. 

Professor Meg Russell FBA (Director of UCL Constitution Unit), who commissioned the poll, said: "The government's bill to remove the hereditary peers presents a once in a generation opportunity to go further. The crucial change is to end the Prime Minister’s ability to appoint however many peers they like, which leads the size of the chamber to grow ever upwards. This situation discredits the House of Lords and politics more broadly.  

“In 2016 the Lord Speaker set up a cross-party committee to tackle the problem of size, and it made recommendations which were accepted by the chamber. Now is the time to put these into effect, through amendments to this bill – which is the first government bill on Lords reform to reach the chamber for 27 years.  

“Our poll shows overwhelming public support for such changes. If the House of Lords misses this opportunity, the next change could wait another 27 years or more." 

The polling also showed significant public support for an independent appointments commission. Currently, the House of Lords Appointments Commission advises the Prime Minister on the propriety of nominees but has no ability to block appointments. Of those polled, 72% supported the suggestion of an independent body that could block the Prime Minister’s candidates if they do not meet basic standards, including 76% among 2024 Labour voters, 77% among Conservative and Reform voters, and over 80% among Liberal Democrats (82%) and Greens (85%). Just 13% supported the status quo position. 

Further indicating support to limit the Prime Minister’s influence, YouGov asked respondents whether prime ministerial appointments to the upper chamber should be required to follow a clear formula based on general election votes. 64% believed the Prime Minister should have to follow a formula linked to election results when sharing out new appointments, against 9% who believed that the Prime Minister should decide party balance (as happens now).  

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,228 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 22nd - 23rd June 2025.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). 

The UCL Constitution Unit is an independent, non-partisan research centre based in the UCL Department of Political Science. 

Links

• The full polling results will be on the UCL Constitution Unit website.
• Professor Meg Russell’s academic profile
• UCL Constitution Unit
• UCL Political Science

Media contact 

Sophie Hunter

tel: +44 7502505610

E: sophie.hunter@ucl.ac.uk