Stevenson Calls for Lib Dem Lords to Resign After General Election Result

Stewart Stevenson, SNP MSP for Banffshire & Buchan Coast, has called on the 101 Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords to consider resignation after their devastating defeat in the General Election last week.

Following a ministerial statement on the outcome of the General Election in the Scottish Parliament today (Wednesday), Mr Stevenson asked the First Minister:

“Would it not be a democratic affront if any politician rejected by the electorate were to return to Westminster by appointment to the House of Lords?

LibDem Lord Purvis
defeated in 2011
appointed by
LibDems to the Lords

“Given that there are 101 Liberal Democrat Lords – more than the whole membership of the US Senate – and now only eight democratically elected Liberal Democrat MPs, is it not time for these Lords to consider their resignation?”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon responded by calling the House of Lords a “democratic outrage” adding:

“It would be democratically wrong for defeated MPs to find their way back to Westminster by sitting in the House of Lords. People with no democratic mandate should not be writing the laws of our land.”

Ms Sturgeon further asked for a commitment from the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats that no defeated candidate from last week’s election would be appointed to the House of Lords, to “get around the democratic will of the Scottish people.”