Penny Mordaunt, the former defence secretary and minister for women and equalities, has called on the government to abolish the law that prevents the daughters of hereditary peers from being elected to the House of Lords.
The Conservative MP, who is being tipped for a return to the cabinet in the forthcoming reshuffle, has written to Cabinet minister Michael Gove to ask that the government reforms the practice of male primogeniture.
Boris Johnson’s government is already eyeing radical plans to reform the House of Lords as part of a wider constitutional overhaul.
Most UK peers ceased to have official privileges when the Labour government reformed the House of Lords in 1999. But some exceptions were made: 92 seats in the upper chamber of parliament are still reserved for holders of hereditary titles. Of these, only one is occupied by a woman.
Ms Mordaunt told the FT: “There are many priorities for this new government. Although this is not top of the in-tray, it is part of the necessary reforms we must undertake if we are to restore trust in politics.”
The Daughters’ Rights campaign group, who are calling for reform, says provisions can be made to ensure any son living on the date new legislation comes into force can still succeed at the next succession.
Charlotte Carew Pole, the group’s chairwoman, said: “This is an issue however whose time has come, and we hope 2020 is the year we finally end the last state sanctioned sex discrimination.”
The prospect of ending male primogeniture has been under discussion for decades but numerous attempts, via private bills, to abolish male primogeniture for hereditary titles and peerages have been unsuccessful.
In 2013, the constitution was amended to allow the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to accede to the throne, regardless of their sex.
Five daughters of peers have taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that because they cannot inherit their fathers’ titles they are barred from taking seats in the House of Lords and that this breaches two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning gender discrimination and the right to a free and fair election.
The Cabinet Office pointed to a statement made in July 2019, by the then parliamentary Secretary Kevin Foster, who said: “Careful consideration is needed of the issues that reform in this area would raise including the legitimate expectation of males next in line to inherit a title, and the effects of reform on land and property rights.”
