Salisbury Convention
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The Salisbury Convention (sometimes the Salisbury-Addison Convention) is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom which puts forward that the House of Lords will not oppose the second reading of any government legislation promised in its election manifesto.
In its modern form, it was introduced by Lord Salisbury, the Conservative leader of the House of Lords, following a landslide Labour general election victory in 1945. Salisbury believed that because Clement Attlee's Labour government had a clear mandate to deliver the policies of nationalisation and welfare state measures, the House of Lords should not oppose such legislation at the second reading. Under the convention it is still permitted to propose reasoned amendments to a motion for second reading of a Government bill, provided such amendments are not wrecking amendments designed to destroy the bill. Although not explicitly covered by the convention there is also an understanding that the House of Lords will not vote down Statutory Instruments.
Since the Labour general election victory in 2005 both the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have indicated that they do not feel bound by the Salisbury Convention as a result of decreasing voter turnout, the low share of the vote received by the Government and the changes to the composition of the House of Lords introduced in 1999 by the Labour Government.
