2nd Viscount Stansgate no relation United Kingdom
The Peerage Act 1963 (c. 48) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that permits women peeresses and all Scottish hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords and allows newly inherited hereditary peerages to be disclaimed.Background
The Act resulted largely from the protests of Labour politician Tony Benn, then the 2nd Viscount Stansgate. Under British law at the time, peers of England, peers of Great Britain and peers of the United Kingdom (who met certain qualifications, such as age which was (and is) 21) were automatically members of the House of Lords and could not sit in or vote in elections for the other chamber, the House of Commons.
At the time of the Act, thirty peers in the Peerage of Scotland also had English, British or UK peerages and were thus members of the House of Lords.
When William Wedgwood Benn, Tony Benn's father, agreed to accept the Viscountcy, he ascertained that the heir-apparent, his eldest son Michael, did not plan to enter the House of Commons. However, within a few years of the peerage being accepted, Michael Benn was killed in action in the Second World War. Tony Benn, his younger brother, became heir apparent to the peerage and was elected to the House of Commons in 1950. Not wishing to leave it for the other House, he campaigned through the 1950s for a change in the law. In 1960, the 1st Viscount died and Tony Benn inherited the title, automatically losing his seat in the House of Commons as a member for the constituency of Bristol South East. In the ensuing by-election, however, Benn was re-elected to the Commons, despite being disqualified. An election court ruled that he could not take his seat, instead awarding it to the runner-up, the Conservative Malcolm St Clair.In 1963, the Conservative Government agreed to introduce a Peerage Bill, allowing individuals to disclaim peerages; it received royal assent on 31 July 1963. Tony Benn was the first peer to make use of the Act. St Clair, fulfilling a promise he had made at the time of taking his seat, accepted the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead the previous day, thereby disqualifying himself from the House (outright resignation is prohibited), and Benn was then re-elected in Bristol South East at the ensuing by-election.
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