Background
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 of the United Kingdom (meeting certain qualifications, such as age) were automatically members of the House of Lords and could not sit in, or 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. However, within a few years of Benn's acceptance of the title Michael Benn was killed in action in World War II. Tony Benn, as his younger brother, became the heir to the peerage. The younger Benn was elected to the House of Commons in 1950, 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, automatically 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. St Clair, fulfilling a promise he had made at the time of his seating, 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.
Read more about this topic: Peerage Act 1963
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