House of Lords is costly for the taxpayer and long overdue for reform - Yorkshire Post Letters

I am confident that if the Reform Party stood by its principles and reformed the guidelines for those who sit in the upper House of Lords, they would be a real threat to the Conservative Party at the next General Election later this year.

The Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Kier Starmer, has backed off probably due to pressure from some of his colleagues who have their eyes on a seat in the upper chamber.

It is interesting to note that the likes of Lord John Prescott and Lord Tony Blair were in the past criticising the House of Lords but have managed to get a seat in the House of Lords.

The cost for those 850+ members, of which a staggering 664 are life peers, is escalating out of control and to give them the opportunity to claim an extra £100 for overnight hotel accommodation on top of the daily attendance of £342 is in my opinion the final straw to the hard working taxpayer.

When you consider the 'output' collectively of members of the House of Lords it is shameful, compared to British manufacturing industry, and if it was funded privately the House of Lords would be bankrupt or in 'special measures'.

Yes the 650 MPs, especially now with increasing cases of misconduct by some of those who were elected, do need scrutinising but there must be a more effective and less costly way to taxpayers to achieve this?

Bring on the Reform Party to sort out the Houses of Parliament, as the other major three political parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats are incapable of sorting out their own housekeeping where they work and until this happens the taxpayer is being taken literally to the cleaners.