Both Houses of Parliament will need new, temporary homes after the election due in 2020 so that extensive restoration work on the Palace of Westminster can proceed. There is wide support for plans to move the two Houses out of the Palace into separate nearby premises. However, some MPs have now proposed that the Commons should occupy the Lords chamber (as it did between 1941 and 1950 after Nazi bombing destroyed the Commons chamber) while the Lords move into the nearby Royal Gallery, which is used occasionally for ceremonial purposes but is empty for much of the time.
Discussion of the new proposal in the press prompted a letter from Alistair Lexden to The Times which was published on January 20. If the arrangements adopted during the Second World War were repeated, he asked light-heartedly, would they help speed a reduction in the size of the Lords?
Sir, MPs rather enjoyed their war-time evacuation to the plush red benches, though Churchill --who had called for the abolition of the Lords as a young radical firebrand-- never felt entirely at ease. The Speaker’s procession through Central Lobby was introduced for the first time. Where would modern tourism be without it? Peers were far from keen on the Royal Robing Room into which they were pitched. They were reminded of past misdeeds. It is next to the Royal Gallery where a peer had been tried for manslaughter as recently as 1935. The temperature was freezing. They could, however, fit into the space with comfort. Average daily attendance was around a hundred; now it is nearly five hundred. Discussions, chaired by the Lord Speaker, have just started to find a way of slimming down in response to widespread criticism of our current size. Could a return to our war-time home be just what is needed to get a speedy conclusion?
Lord Lexden
House of Lords