It has been a big week for me, personally. On Thursday 16 July, the government announced 26 new members of the House of Lords – and I am one of them: I am to be Lord Leunig. Since it is His Majesty’s Government, the official announcement read “The King has been graciously pleased to signify His intention of conferring Peerages of the United Kingdom for Life upon the undermentioned:”

Sixteen new peers will be Labour, five Liberal Democrat (including me), and three Conservative. These twenty four were nominated by their political parties. The remaining two will be “crossbenchers”, that is, not taking the whip from any political party.

Those numbers: sixteen, five, three and two are entirely, as I understand it, the choice of the PM. He could have created no peers at all, or had a completely different ratio. He could have created peers for other parties, and he could have offered Count Binface a peerage. It really is up to him. (For those wondering why the Conservatives got only three new peers, they have more peers than other parties already: to be honest I am surprised that they were given any.) But either way, it is the PM’s choice. There are currently no Reform Lords, and only two Greens.

The House of Lords is indefensible in so many ways. Once appointed, peers have been appointed for life, although a retirement age of 80 is planned. That means I could be a legislator for almost 25 years – in which time my views could change spectacularly, or my principles lose support in the country. In neither case would I be removed. A side effect is that peers are typically rather old – the majority are over 70, and well over a third are over 80.

Nor is the Lords representative. Whether they win or lose general elections, the Conservative party always has more peers than Labour. No other democracy gives one party the biggest share of legislators, no matter how badly that party does in elections. That is offensive to anyone who calls themselves a democrat.

The Lords are unrepresentative in other ways. Fewer than a third of peers are women. Some political parties do better: 45% of Labour and 43% of Liberal Democrat peers are women, similar to their Commons mix (46% and 44% respectively). In contrast only 29% of Conservative peers are women. More than half of peers attended private schools.

I will work hard in my new role. But neither I, nor anyone else, should be made a legislator without the consent of the people. People say “Ah, but the Lords contains such experts”, forgetting that experts can be elected. Among the LibDem MPs, at least 4 have PhDs: Mike Martin a PhD in war studies from King’s College London, Manuela Perteghella a PhD in theatre and translation from UEA, Al Pinkerton a PhD in geopolitics at Royal Holloway and Ian Sollom has a PhD in cosmology from Cambridge. Many others are experts in their own fields.

Where experts do not want to stand, they can be consulted by parliamentarians – I have been summoned to appear before parliamentary committees from time to time.

Today the UK gets a new Prime Minister. He has shown a consistent interest in constitutional reform. The 2024 Labour manifesto says that “Labour is committed to replacing the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the regions and nations.”

All I can say is “Go for it”.

Fulfill your manifesto promise and abolish me.

* Tim Leunig is an economist, and has just been appointed to the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer.