Peer warned he is 'not a member of Lords'
By Ned Simons@nedsimons - 18th July 2011
A hereditary peer has been told to stop claiming he is a member of the House of Lords.
David Beamish, the clerk of the Parliaments, has issued a warning to Lord Monkton after he claimed he was a Member of Parliament.
When asked on Australian radio whether he was a member of the House of Lords he replied: "Yes, but without the right to sit or vote". You later repeated, "I am a Member of the House".
Lord Monkton inherited his peerage from his father who lost his right to sit in the House of Lords as a result of the House of Lords Act 1999 which removed the majority of hereditary peers.
In a letter published today Beamish warned him: "you are not and have never been a Member of the House of Lords".
"Your assertion that you are a Member, but without the right to sit or vote, is a contradiction in terms," he said.
"No-one denies that you are, by virtue of your letters Patent, a Peer. That is an entirely separate issue to membership of the House."
Beamish added: "I must therefore again ask that you desist from claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a Member "without the right to sit or vote".
The peer, a climate chance sceptic, also refereed to himself as "a member of the Upper House of the United Kingdom legislature" in a letter to the US Senate.
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