Life Peer (United Kingdom) - Number of Life Peers

Number of Life Peers

Peerage dignities created under
the Life Peerages Act 1958
Prime Minister Party Tenure Peers Per year
Harold Macmillan Conservative 1957–1963 48 9.6*
Alec Douglas-Home Conservative 1963–1964 14 14.0
Harold Wilson Labour 1964–1970 123 20.5**
Edward Heath Conservative 1970–1974 56 14.0
Harold Wilson Labour 1974–1976 80 40.0**
James Callaghan Labour 1976–1979 57 19.0
Margaret Thatcher Conservative 1979–1990 200 18.2
John Major Conservative 1990–1997 141 20.1
Tony Blair Labour 1997–2007 357 35.7
Gordon Brown Labour 2007–2010 34 11.3
David Cameron Conservative 2010- 121 60.5
Total 1,231 20.2
*
**

The Appellate Jurisdiction Act originally provided for the appointment of two Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who would continue to serve while holding judicial office, though in 1887, they were permitted to continue to sit in the House of Lords for life, under the style and dignity of baron. The number of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary was increased from time to time — to three in 1882, to four in 1891, to six in 1913, to seven in 1919, to nine in 1947, to 11 in 1968 and to 12 in 1994. These provisions were repealed by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 which created the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

The rate of creation of life peerages under the Life Peerages Act has not shown a consistent pattern. Current prime minister David Cameron has been creating life peerages at the highest rate. Conservative Prime Ministers have created on average 20 life peers per year in office, Labour Prime Ministers an average of 27.2 per year. In absolute terms, Labour (in 24 years) created 1.2 times the number of life peerages created by the Conservatives (in 29 years). - On the other hand, Conservative Prime Ministers (especially Macmillan) created the vast majority of the about 50 hereditary peerages still created since 1958.

In 1999, there were 172 Conservative and 160 Labour life peers in the House of Lords, and by 4 January 2010, there were 141 Conservative and 207 Labour life peers in the House of Lords. The hereditary element of the House of Lords, however, was much less balanced. In 1999, for example, immediately before most hereditary peers were removed by the House of Lords Act, there were 350 Conservative hereditary peers, compared with 19 Labour peers and 23 Liberal Democrat peers.

Read more about this topic:  Life Peer (United Kingdom)

Famous quotes containing the words number of, number, life and/or peers:

    In many ways, life becomes simpler [for young adults]. . . . We are expected to solve only a finite number of problems within a limited range of possible solutions. . . . It’s a mental vacation compared with figuring out who we are, what we believe, what we’re going to do with our talents, how we’re going to solve the social problems of the globe . . .and what the perfect way to raise our children will be.
    Roger Gould (20th century)

    If matrimony be really beneficial to society, the custom that ... married women alone are allowed any claim to place, is as useful a piece of policy as ever was invented.... The ridicule fixed on the appellation of old maid hath, I doubt not, frightened a very large number into the bonds of wedlock.
    Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)

    Thus was my first year’s life in the woods completed; and the second year was similar to it. I finally left Walden September 6th, 1847.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    For believe me!—the secret to harvesting the greatest abundance and the greatest enjoyment from existence is this—living dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Live at war with your peers and yourselves! Be robbers and conquerors, so long as you cannot be rulers and possessors, you knowing ones! The time will soon be past when you could be content to live hidden in the forests like timid deer.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)