Writing in The Spectator on 12 May, Charles Moore regretted that the present (ninth) Duke of Wellington had not followed the example of his famous predecessor, who urged peers not to tamper with important legislation passed by the Commons even if they disagreed with it strongly. In a letter published in the magazine on 19 May, Alistair Lexden pointed out that the victor of Waterloo urged the Lords to defer to the Commons only in the final stages of disagreement.
Sir, Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 12 May) is a little premature in suggesting that the current Duke of Wellington has departed from the wise habits of his great forebear by amending the EU Withdrawal Bill in the Lords. The Iron Duke often took strong exception to measures passed by the Commons, but always insisted that in the end the Lords must give way. After denouncing the Whig government’s new constitution for Canada in 1840, ‘In the last stages I prevailed upon the House to agree to, and pass it, in order to avoid the injury to the public interests of a dispute between the two Houses on a question of such importance.’ The test for the current Duke and his supporters comes when the Bill returns to the Lords for its last stages.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords