Labour leadership candidate Eluned Morgan will quit House of Lords if she's First Minister

Wales
Cardiff
Welsh Labour
Eluned Morgan
Thursday 1 November 2018 at 6:58pm

One of the three candidates to become the next Welsh Labour Leader and succeed Carwyn Jones as First Minister has said she'll give up her title and place in the House of Lords if she wins.

Life-long learning minister Eluned Morgan has been Baroness Morgan of Ely since 2011, following fifteen years as a member of the European Parliament. It's been proposed that AMs who are peers should be required to take formal leave of absence from the House of Lords.

She says she'll comply with that rule "when the new law is brought in", though she still hopes to take part in Lords' votes on Brexit before the UK leaves the EU at the end of March.

I am aware that many people in Wales would not wish someone with a title being in charge of the country and therefore I will give up my seat in the second chamber if I am elected as First Minister. I am proud of what I have managed to achieve for Wales through my membership of the House of Lords since being appointed in 2011 from supporting gay marriage rights to leading the fight on the trade union bill and gaining more powers for Wales leading on two Wales Bills. I was also proud to serve on Jeremy Corbyn's front bench on Foreign Affairs matters. I have been clear since joining the Lords that I would wish to see the second chamber in Westminster reformed into a democratic chamber representing the nations and regions of the UK, a case that I will continue to make this case as First Minister.

Eluned Morgan added that she had only attended the Lords on a few occasions since becoming an AM for Mid & West Wales and that she'd not claimed any allowances apart from to meet travel and hotel costs.