What is Britain’s House of Lords, whose members together spent $113,000 on champagne in a year?

In the year 2023, members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the UK Parliament, spent approximately $113,000 to buy more than 1,500 bottles of champagne. The spending is the highest in five years and comes amid reports of an economic crisis in Britain. After this revelation, members of the Scottish National Party (SNP) are facing a lot of criticism. Tommy Sheppard, SNP MP for Edinburgh East, said a Parliament where unelected Lords collect £342 a day for show is not a fit Parliament to properly represent the people. Due to its staunch opposition to the House of Lords, the SNP has no representatives in the House.

Sheppard said voters would be shocked to hear that, while they were struggling to balance household finances and pay for basics like groceries and energy, unelected Lords were enjoying champagne. The SNP also claimed the shocking figure proved how the Lords were carrying out their habits at a time of rising cost of living crisis.

Sheppard said the past year has been defined by Westminster’s cost-of-living crisis, which has seen living standards fall and countless households pushed into poverty and destitution – a blow to the lords and their lavish lifestyles. There is a different reality. A House of Lords spokesperson later clarified that most of the champagne sold inside the House was for events organized by outside organizations and had nothing to do with the delegates. Let us tell you that the House of Lords is part of the Parliament of Britain. It is also known as the Upper House. It is independent from the House of Commons, where 650 Members of Parliament debate and vote on new laws. Members of the Lords are called “peers”. Like MPs, they scrutinize the work of the government and recommend changes to proposed legislation.