No good reason for clerics to sit in the House of Lords

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 5th Feb 2007

Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West & Abingdon, today questioned the Leader of the House on the appropriateness of clerics sitting in a reformed second chamber purely on the basis of their position in a religious organisation.

Dr Harris said:

"The government's response to this issue is disappointingly complacent because the UK remains the only democratic country that allows clerics to sit in its legislature as of right, and there is no good reason why faith leaders should not seek appointment in competition with other individuals for whatever proportion of a reformed House of Lords remains appointed.

"The Leader of the House should accept that we can have an established Church without twenty men from it in our Parliament. On that basis we would need another fifty to 'represent' citizens of other faiths when most democracies find that electing politicians and not appointing clerics is the best way to do this."