[1] It was abandoned by the UK Government in August 2012 and formally withdrawn on 3 September 2012,[2] following opposition from within the Conservative Party.

The Conservative Party manifesto stated: We will work to build a consensus for a mainly-elected second chamber to replace the current House of Lords, recognising that an efficient and effective second chamber should play an important role in our democracy and requires both legitimacy and public confidence.

[4]When the two parties formed the Coalition Government, their Agreement stated: We will establish a committee to bring forward proposals for a wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation.

It provided for a semi-open list system, allowing voters to choose a party or an individual, in Scotland, Wales, and England (which would have been divided into regions as was done in European Parliament elections).

In the case of a casual vacancy, an interim replacement would have generally filled the seat until the next House of Lords election.

Its purpose was to recommend to the Prime Minister 30 appointed members in the first two weeks of an electoral period, generally near the beginning of a new Parliament.

Part 6 of the bill provided for some members of the pre-reform House of Lords to remain during the first two electoral periods, i.e., until 2019/25.

According to the House of Lords website, there were 790 peers with the right to a writ of summons,[11] making the transitional membership 527 for the first period and 263 for the second.

[15] Labour leader Ed Miliband countered: "I am sure for some people House of Lords reform was uppermost in their mind at the time of the election, but I don't think that applies to the majority.

"[16] On 9 July 2012 Clegg put forward the bill to a vote on the programme motion and the Second Reading.

Clegg stated that the government's position was that the Parliament Act 1911 would be invoked if the Bill was rejected by the House of Lords.

[18][19] Labour called for more scrutiny of the bill and said it would vote against the programme motion, along with several Conservative MPs.

[22] The Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, told the Chamber on 10 July 2012 that a new programme motion and timetable for debating the bill had not yet been confirmed.

[23] Backbench Conservative MPs told Cameron that the House of Lords Reform Bill was "a dead duck" following the vote.

[24] On 3 August 2012, it was reported that the Prime Minister was to announce that the bill would be dropped after negotiations with Conservative rebels broke down.

[25][26] Just three days later, on 6 August 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced that the Government was abandoning the bill due to the opposition from Conservative backbench MPs, claiming that the Conservatives had "broken the coalition contract".