The House of Lords has been abolished before, in March 1649
As part of a plan to democratise British politics and to an extent decentralise it plans brought forward by Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer today propose the abolition of the House of Lords and its replacement by an elected second chamber. We have been here before and not just after 1997 when Tony Blair also promised reform. In the end this ended up meaning fewer Peers but the Tories have since expanded the number again with any number of what most charitably might be described as eccentric figures and trough eaters.
However in March 1649 Oliver Cromwell did abolish the Lords, as a period of Republican Government to 1660 was ushered in following the execution of King Charles 1st in Whitehall on 30th January 1649.
Cromwell was by no means unfriendly with at least the Peers who had backed his battles with the King but came to regard them in general as an obstacle. Abolition of the Lords was one of the democratic and radical demands of the Levellers and one of the few Cromwell implemented.
During the 1650s Cromwell experimented with various kinds of, usually far from radical, Parliamentary Government. However by 1657 he had come to the conclusion that the rule of the Commons alone could lead to arbitrary decisions, often those demanded by senior figures in the Army.
Cromwell planned the Other House consisting of 62 men who represented a far wider geographic spread than the Lords had. They were all appointed but they were all Life Peers. The Hereditary Principle was abolished.
Cromwell needed the Commons to work with the Other House which they declined to do and 342 years on we are still waiting for any kind of democratic second chamber. Whether Keir Starmer gets round to doing something neither Cromwell or Blair couldn’t manage will be interesting to watch
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