Life Peerages Act 1958 Life Peerages Act 1958 The Life Peerages Act 1958 established the modern standards for the creation of life peers by the monarch of the United Kingdom. This Act was made during the Conservative governments of 1957–1964, when Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister. Elizabeth II had ascended to the throne just over five years before the Act. The Conservatives tried to introduce life peerages to modernise the House of Lords, give it more legitimacy, and respond to a decline in its numbers and attendance. The Labour Party opposed the Life Peerages Bill on Second Reading: Hugh Gaitskell made an impassioned speech
1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours 1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours The 1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours were announced on 27 May 1976 to mark the resignation of the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. The list of honours became known satirically as the "Lavender List". The list caused controversy as a number of recipients were wealthy businessmen whose principles were considered antithetical to those held by the Labour Party at the time. Roy Jenkins notes that Wilson's retirement "was disfigured by his, at best, eccentric resignation honours list, which gave peerages or knighthoods to some adventurous business gentlemen, several of whom were close neither to him nor