Away from the noise of Big Ben and Parliament Square, tucked away on a quieter side of the walls that surround the Palace of Westminster, a doorkeeper in a thick red coat and black top hat stands at a gothic stone porch. A taxi pulls up and he steps forward to usher a pensioner laden with Selfridges bags into the warm lobby.
This may look like the door to a five-star hotel but in fact it is the members’ entrance for the House of Lords. Parliament’s upper chamber has ballooned in recent years to more than 800 peers, who range from the last of the blue-blooded aristocrats, to bishops and bestowers of generous political donations.
