Peerage Act Articles from SEXGRINDER.COM Free Article Directory

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Acts of English Parliament to 1601
Acts of English Parliament to 1641
Ordinances and Acts (War & Interregnum) to 1660
Acts of English Parliament to 1699
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Acts of Irish Parliament to 1700
Acts of Irish Parliament to 1800

The Act resulted largely from the protests of one man, the Labour politician Tony Benn, then second Viscount Stansgate. Under British law at the time, peers (meeting certain qualifications, such as age) were automatically members of the House of Lords and could not sit in, or even vote in elections for, the other chamber, the House of Commons. When William Wedgwood Benn, Tony Benn's father, agreed to accept the Viscountcy, he ensured that the would-be heir, his eldest son Michael, did not plan to enter the House of Commons. Within a few years of Benn's acceptance of the title, however, Michael Benn was killed in action, and Tony Benn, as his younger brother, became the heir to the peerage. The younger Benn then became a member of the House of Commons, and did not intend to leave it for the other House, so he campaigned through the 1950s for a change in the law.

In 1960, the first Viscount died and Tony Benn inherited the title, losing his seat in the House of Commons for the constituency of Bristol South East. In the ensuing by-election, however, Benn was re-elected to the House despite being disqualified. A court ruled that he could not take his seat, instead giving it to the runner-up, the Conservative Malcolm St Clair. In 1963, the Conservative Government agreed to introduce the Peerage Bill allowing individuals to disclaim peerages. Tony Benn was the first peer to make use of the act. Mr. St. Clair then accepted the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, thereby disqualifying himself from the House (outright resignation is prohibited), and Benn was then re-elected at the ensuing by-election.

To disclaim an hereditary peerage, the peer must deliver an instrument of disclaimer to the Lord Chancellor within twelve months of succeeding to the peerage, or within twelve months of passage of the Act, or, if under the age of twenty-one at the time of succession, within twelve months of becoming twenty-one years old. If, at the time of succession, the peer is a member of the House of Commons, then the instrument must be delivered within one month of succession, and until such an instrument is delivered, the peer may neither sit nor vote in the lower House. Prior to the House of Lords Act 1999, an hereditary peer could not disclaim a peerage after having applied for a writ of summons to Parliament; now, however, hereditary peers do not have the automatic right to a writ of summons to the House. Irish peerages may not be disclaimed (but Irish peerages did not grant an automatic right to sit in the House of Lords). A peer who disclaims the peerage loses all titles, rights and privileges associated with the peerage; if he is a married man, so does his wife. No further hereditary peerages may be conferred upon the person, but life peerages may be. The peerage remains without a holder until the death of the peer making the disclaimer, when it descends as if it were never renounced.

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