SNP calls for members of 'archaic' House of Lords to pay income tax on parliamentary allowance

The SNP has proposed to force members of the House of Lords to pay income tax on their parliamentary allowance.

This week the party’s Deputy Westminster Leader Pete Wishart will table an amendment to tax peers on their £342 daily allowance, as well as one outright calling for the second chamber to be abolished.

Members of the House of Lords are currently entitled to tax-free pay on days where they are present, even if they make no speeches, ask no questions or do not vote.

Last year, peers claimed more than £20million in attendance allowances, all of which was tax free.

The House of Lords Chamber during the State Opening of Parliament. PIC: Henry Nicholls/PA Wire

Now the SNP have claimed this means peers avoided up to £9m in income tax last year, and urged Labour to back Mr Wishart’s amendment.

He said: “Unlike the Westminster parties, the SNP want the House of Lords abolished – plain and simple. There’s no justification for this undemocratic and outdated institution to exist any longer and it’s a complete joke for their members not to pay a single penny of income tax on their salary for simply turning up.

“At the very least Scottish Labour MPs should join me in forcing Lords to cough up and pay tax on their £342 a day pay – that’s the only viable option for anyone who believes in democracy, but if they won’t then they must explain to voters why they believe they should pay tax, but ermine clad Labour big wigs in the Lords shouldn’t.

“The Labour Party has repeatedly broken its promise to abolish the House of Lords for more than a century and, frankly, this embarrassingly limited bill is 114 years too little, too late. Voters were promised change, but instead Sir Keir Starmer has ripped up his election pledges, and continued stuffing the Lords with Labour Party donors and cronies as it suits him.

"The undemocratic House of Lords is an archaic institution of the kind you'd find in a banana republic and it's second-only in size to the Congress of China costing taxpayers more than £200million a year. If it was any other country, the government would rightly think it utterly corrupt, but while the Labour Party may have watered down their promises on Lords reform, our values in the SNP remain clear – abolish it and abolish it now.”

There is no expectation either amendment will pass, and they would first have to be chosen by the Speaker.

A UK government source said: “The SNP threatening to sabotage Labour plans to reform the Lords is the same old game playing and posturing that Scots have grown sick and tired of.”