Macclesfield's MP has welcomed the removal of hereditary peers.

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill was passed on Tuesday night, March 11, in one of the biggest reforms to Parliament and UK democracy in a generation.

For hundreds of years, hereditary peers have inherited a right to make and debate laws in Parliament.

In 1999, under the last Labour government, more than 600 of these peers were removed from the Lords and this bill will see the removal of the remaining 92, who had been retained as an interim measure.

Welcoming this news, Macclesfield MP Tim Roca said: "We've been arguing for this for years.

"No one should be given an automatic place in Parliament because of the family they were born into.

"And now they won't."

The Bill is the first step in wider reform to the House of Lords which, besides Lesotho's Senate, is the only legislative body that still contains a hereditary element.

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As a compromise, the Government has agreed to offer additional life peerages to the Official Opposition and Crossbenchers.

The Bill will come into effect at the end of this session of Parliament, after which no peer will be a member of the House of Lords on the basis of their hereditary peerage.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said: "Hereditary peerages are an archaic and undemocratic principle.

"I am proud that we have fulfilled a key manifesto pledge of this government.

"Our Parliament should always be a place where talents are recognised and merit counts.

"It should never be a gallery of old boys' networks, nor a place where titles, many of which were handed out centuries ago, hold power over the will of the people."