Evaluate The View That In Practice The House Of Lords Exerts More Influence Than The House Of Commons (30)

AGREE HoL can still scrutinise the government when the gov has a large majority in the commons.

Boris Johnson was defeated only 4 times in the HoC but 243 in the HoL.

Lords can influence legislation when HoC is dominated by the governing party

AGREE Existence of crossbenchers

184 cross benchers in the lords (do not belong to any political party) so therefore are not affected by the whips vote

based on judgement and expertise rather than party loyalty.

AGREE Lords can bring their expertise to the legislative process.

Baroness Lawrence expert on race issues after the murder of her son she campaigned for justice and brough attention to racism and inequality within the criminal justice system

Pressures the government to implement policy on racial equality and police reform

DISAGREE Parliament acts significantly reduces the HoL power to legislate

gov can still pass legislation over objection of Lords) e.g hunting act, banned fox hunting, which the lords strongly opposed.

Limits HoL power to block gov legislation.

DISAGREE Votes of no confidence can weaken the government.

T May 2019 suffered historic defeat of 230 votes over Brexit - largest defeat in history.

undermined her authority leading to her eventual downfall.

DISAGREE Ignore lords

Jan 2020 HoC rejected all 5 of the HoL amendments to the EU withdrawal agreement.

Limited influence as only the HoC have the final say on legislation.