The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house,the House of Commons,it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London,England. One of the oldest institutions in the world,its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.
Ifor Huw Irranca-Davies is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as Deputy First Minister of Wales since August 2024,and as Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs since March 2024. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ogmore since 2016. Irranca-Davies was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ogmore from 2002 to 2016.
Patricia Janet Scotland,Baroness Scotland of Asthal,,is a British diplomat,barrister and politician,serving as the sixth secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations. She was elected at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and took office on 1 April 2016. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elevated to the House of Lords in 1997 and,as a British Labour Party politician,served in ministerial positions within the UK Government,most notably as the Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland. She is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Dominica,where she was born.
Gillian Joanna Merron,Baroness Merron is a British politician and life peer serving as Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews since 2014. A member of the Labour Party,she has been serving as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety,Women's Health and Mental Health since 2024. She served as the shadow spokesperson for Health and Social Care from 2021 to 2024. She was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1997 till 2010 and held several ministerial offices in the Blair and Brown governments.
Angela Lavinia Bray,Baroness Bray of Coln is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of the London Assembly for West Central from 2000 to 2008,and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton from 2010 to 2015.
In the United Kingdom,life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited,in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the Dukedom of Edinburgh awarded for life to Prince Edward in 2023,all life peerages conferred since 2009 have been created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 with the rank of baron and entitle their holders to sit and vote in the House of Lords,presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer appointed under the Life Peerages Act 1958 are entitled to style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable",although they cannot inherit the peerage itself. Prior to 2009,life peers of baronial rank could also be so created under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 for senior judges.
Mair Eluned Morgan,Baroness Morgan of Ely,,is a Welsh Labour politician who has served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour since 2024. She previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in the Welsh Government from 2021 to 2024.
Peter John Law was a Welsh politician. For most of his career Law sat as a Labour councillor and subsequently Labour Co-operative Assembly member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent. Latterly he sat as an independent member of Parliament (MP) and AM for the same constituency.
Jennifer Elizabeth Randerson,Baroness Randerson is a Welsh Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is a former junior minister in the Wales Office serving in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. Prior to her peerage she was an Assembly Member for Cardiff Central from 1999 to 2011 when she served in the Welsh Labour-Lib Dem administration of the 2000–2003 Welsh Assembly Government.
Eirene Lloyd White,Baroness White was a British Labour politician and journalist.
Claire Regina Fox,Baroness Fox of Buckley,is a British writer,journalist,lecturer and politician who sits in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated life peer. She is the director and founder of the think tank the Academy of Ideas.
Two by-elections were held for the constituency of Blaenau Gwent in Wales following the death of Member of Parliament and Assembly Member Peter Law on 25 April 2006. As Law was the MP and Assembly Member (AM),his death required by-elections in both the parliamentary seat and the equivalent Welsh Assembly constituency. The two elections polled on the same day,29 June,as a by-election in Bromley and Chislehurst. A win by the Labour Party in the AM by-election would have restored their majority in the Welsh Assembly,which was lost when Law was expelled from the party.
Dafydd Elystan Elystan-Morgan,Baron Elystan-Morgan,known as Elystan Morgan,was a Welsh politician. He sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords from 1981 to 2020,and served as a Labour MP from 1966 to 1974.
Sandip K. Verma,Baroness Verma known until 1977 as Sandip K. Rana,is an Indian-British politician in the United Kingdom. An appointed member of the House of Lords,she is Ministerial Champion for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Overseas,a role who chairs the UN Women's national committee. Verma was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development,from 2015 to 2016.
Margaret Delyth Evans is a Welsh executive and former politician who served as Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs,Culture and Environment in the National Assembly for Wales from 2000 to 2003. A member of the Labour Party,she was the Assembly Member (AM) for Mid and West Wales from 2000 until her retirement from the National Assembly in 2003. In 2010,she became the chief executive of the charity Dress For Success London,where she remained until 2014. She has also been a director at the Film Agency for Wales,a trustee at the charity United Response,and has sat on the board of Sport Wales since 2019.
Janet Anne Royall,Baroness Royall of Blaisdon,,is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician and the current Principal of Somerville College,Oxford. A former secretary and adviser to Neil Kinnock,Royall was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004 after having stood unsuccessfully to be MEP for The Cotswolds and MP for Ipswich and Ogmore. She was Leader of the House of Lords for the last eighteen months of Gordon Brown's premiership. Royall is a candidate in the 2024 University of Oxford Chancellor election;a leader in The Times questioned Royall's suitability for the role due to her criticism of the Higher Education Act and her support for unconscious bias training.
Natalie Louise Bennett,Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle,is an Australian-British politician and journalist who served as Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2012 to 2016. Bennett was given a peerage in Theresa May's 2019 resignation honours.
Susan Mary Hayman,Baroness Hayman of Ullock is a British politician and life peer who has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party,she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Workington from 2015 to 2019. Hayman served as an Opposition Whip from 2015 to 2016 and Shadow Minister for Flooding and Coastal Communities from 2016 to 2017,then as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs from 2017 to 2019 and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2020.
Alexandra Davies-Jones is a Welsh Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd since 2019. She has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims since July 2024. She previously served as Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding from November 2023 to July 2024.
Sharon Jane Taylor,Baroness Taylor of Stevenage,,is a British politician and life peer who has served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government and a Baroness-in-Waiting since July 2024. She was a member of Stevenage Borough Council in Hertfordshire from 1997 to 2024,and served as the leader of the council from 2006 to 2022.
