Charles Walker calls for a debate on peerages.

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): Could we have an urgent debate on peerages? Unlike many of my colleagues, I do not really care if people want to buy the right to sit in the House of Lords, but I do care if people can buy the right to legislate in the House of Lords. Perhaps we could have a second tier of junior peerages, so that people can call themselves Lord Snooks but are not allowed to pass laws. Perhaps the parties could have 10 each of those peerages and auction them on eBay to ensure that we get best value.

Mr. Hoon: I rather thought that that was how the hereditary peerage worked anyway. I know that the Conservatives secretly regret the passing of the hereditary peerage: they have certainly never given us much assistance in that and for many years they have relied on the hereditary peers to frustrate the will of the elected Labour Government. The hon. Gentleman makes his point in an entertaining way, but if we were to have such a debate, is he guaranteeing that his Front-Bench colleagues would reveal whether any Conservative peers have been elevated to that rank as a result of making an undisclosed loan to the Conservative party?

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