One good can come from the Boris Johnson debacle: the will to look afresh at the House of Lords

‘There is a wide consensus that the appointed house is too large. When I was lord speaker, I set up a an all-party committee in 2016 to review the position.’ Photograph: Maxine Powell/Alamy

It was the autumn of 1989. I had been a member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet for the past 10 years and it was time to move on. In putting this to the prime minister in her office in Downing Street, I was deluged with kind remarks– but then came a response I had not envisaged.

“I know you want to stay in the Commons, but if you want to go to the Lords then that is entirely possible.” I repeated my desire to stay in the Commons, where I had been for 20 years. But just before I left, she returned to the alternative. “You can go to the Lords if you change your mind.”