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Honours System (Reform)

I congratulate the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Tony Wright] on his introduction and his rather selective brief history. In summary, he said that the Liberal Democrats started raising money by selling peerages, that the Conservatives cottoned on and that the Labour Government have taken it up with great gusto. However, I do not want to make political points; I want to talk about a constituency matter. [Interruption.] No, I really do. In essence, whatever the House does, we will never remove the suspicion that people are awarded peerages because they have given money to a political party. Does the Minister agree that the only solution, the only way in which such suspicions can be entirely removed, is to have a completely elected House of Lords? If we did that, there would be no question of patronage.