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King Charles had to tell the hereditary peers of the Lords they will lose their seats in the House today, despite holding a particular inherited position himself.
The monarch had to read out the King’s Speech, which is actually written by the government, at the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.
It is one of the many ceremonial roles the constitutional monarch has to take on – the King’s Speech dates back to the 1600s – and that’s why he wears ermine robes and the imperial state crown for the occasion.
But, as an apolitical figure, Charles is not meant to offer any indication about how he personally feels about the announcements.
Still, today the King had to tell those who had inherited their titles that the new government plans to abolish their roles in the Lords.
The monarch read: “Measures to modernise the constitution will be introduced, including House of Lords reform, to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.”
The irony that the King was the one to tell the peers in a televised speech while sitting in front of them in the Lords was not missed by many on social media….
And journalists were quick to spot how uncomfortable that moment probably felt for the monarch in the second State Opening he’s done since inheriting the throne.
It probably did not help that hundreds of republican protesters lined the streets of Westminster with placards reading “Not My King!” as Charles was on his way to parliament.
The House of Lords Act 1999 saw all but 92 hereditary peers kicked out, meaning the membership of the House more than halved to 662.
Keir Starmer’s decision to abolish the hereditary peers role altogether picks up from Tony Blair’s reforms, as the first left-leaning government in the UK for 14 years.
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