ANTI-MONARCHY campaigners have welcomed the introduction of a bill to scrap hereditary peers from the House of Lords but have called on reform to extend to the royal family.

The bill, introduced on Thursday, will look at abolishing the 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers, and is expected to be followed by the imposition of a retirement age of 80 on members of the Lords.

Campaign group Republic said the move raises questions about the future of the monarchy, arguing that just removing hereditary peers is “tinkering with a broken system”, rather than real reform.

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Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, said: “The government has said 'the hereditary principle in law-making has lasted for too long and is out of step with modern Britain', so clearly there's a case to answer on the future of the monarchy.

"The monarchy is central to the UK's rotten parliament and its antiquated practices. Not only is the monarch's role and position out of step with the needs of a modern democracy, but Charles and William use their privileged position to interfere in law-making.”

He added: “We cannot possibly argue that the hereditary principle is wrong for the Lords but right for our head of state. It is clearly wrong in a democracy for anyone to inherit public office.

“Britain needs an effective and accountable head of state, just as we need an effective and accountable parliament. When both are fully and directly elected, then we can call it real reform, and not just tinkering with a broken system.”

In a post on Twitter/X responding to the news, a spokesperson for Republic wrote: “A good start, but we need to elect our entire House of Lords. No one should inherit public office - that includes Charles.”