UK MEPs to gain free access to House of Lords after Commons withdrew passes

British MEPs are to receive special passes that will only grant them access to the House of Lords and its facilities and not the House of Commons as had been the case for more than 20 years.

Since 1989, MEPs representing the UK had been granted automatic access to the Palace of Westminster, but this was revised last November when MPs in the House of Commons voted to withdraw their automatic right to a pass.

This was seen at the time as a move to deny BNP members Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons access to Commons facilities following their election to the European Parliament, and peers in the UK’s upper chamber had expressed their disproval at the move and objected to what they saw as a "messy, shoddy" proposal.

In a later motion in the upper House on MEPs' parliamentary passes, the Chairman of Committees, Lord Brabazon of Tara revealed the wheels were in motion on new passes which would grant the 72 MEPs access only to the Lords' areas.

In a written statement read to the House, he said it would have been "preferable" - for administrative and security reasons - if the Commons and Lords had "identical rules" for passes.

He said the Lord Speaker had written to the then chairman of the House of Commons Administration Committee, Frank Doran MP, to ask that that Commons’ Committee reconsiders its decision to withdraw the passes but revealed “Mr Doran reported [back] that the committee did not "feel it appropriate to revisit the issue".”

"Because of the decision taken by the House of Commons, it will be necessary to alter the appearance of UK MEPs' Parliamentary passes to make clear that they only grant access to the House of Lords' areas of the Parliamentary estate,” Lord Brabazon continued.

Also speaking in the debate, Labour Peer Lord Tomlinson said that MEPs had enjoyed the right to passes "for the last 29 years without, as far as I'm aware, having produced any problems" and alluded to the fact the issue could become "a very serious irritant between ourselves and the European Parliament".

At the time, the then Commons leader Harriet Harman said the decision had been made after a review of the rules relating to passes and concern about pressure on facilities. But Labour MP John Mann said it would stop the BNP "parading round here as if they're legitimate politicians".

When the passes are issued (to those who requested them), I wonder how long and how MPs would react if they spotted the two BNP MEPs and/or UKIP’s Nigel Farage entering or strolling with purpose towards the hallowed Palace of Westminster…