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The son of former foreign secretary Lord Carrington has won a seat for life with just 14 votes under a controversial by-election system.

The hereditary crossbench peer was chosen from an all-male list of 11 candidates in a poll where a total of 29 ballots were cast.

Lord Ravensdale came in second place with nine votes.

The by-election system has faced widespread criticism given the exclusive male-dominated list of eligible candidates and the small number of people able to vote.

The polls, branded "ludicrous and indefensible" by critics, each cost the taxpayer more than £1,140 to run.

The 92 hereditary places are also unaffected by proposals to curb the size of the unelected chamber.

Lord Carrington's late statesman father, who was the last surviving member of Sir Winston Churchill's post-war government, died in July at the age of 99.

Peter Carrington famously resigned as Margaret Thatcher's foreign secretary in 1982 after taking responsibility for the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands.

He had previously chaired the Lancaster House talks in 1979 which led to the establishment of the state of Zimbabwe, and later served as secretary-general of Nato from 1984-88.

(Image: Hulton Archive)

The Eton-educated hereditary peer took up his seat in the House of Lords in 1946 and went on to become the oldest and longest-serving member of Parliament's second chamber.

The current Lord Carrington, who is a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said in his candidate statement he had knowledge and experience of the importance of foreign relations "through the lengthy conduct of investment and trading businesses principally in the USA, Asia and the Middle East".

The 7th baron, who was Eton-educated like his father, worked at the merchant bank Morgan, Grenfell & Co. for 17 years before starting his own financial advisory business.

The election of Lord Carrington, in a poll triggered by the retirement of Lord Northbourne, has led to renewed calls for the system to be ditched.

Labour peer Lord Grocott has introduced backbench legislation aimed at scrapping the contentious by-elections used to fill vacancies caused by the death, resignation or expulsion of hereditary peers.

(Image: PA)

Ridiculing the exclusive polls, Lord Grocott urged the "sunshine of publicity to be brought in" with the media invited "to record the count as it takes place".

"It seems to me only a camera present could capture the drama of the occasion," he said in a mocking tone.

Pointing to the stated aim to reduce the size of the chamber to 600 members, he said: "We will find great difficulty in doing that unless something happens."

The rule of "two out, one in" did not apply to the hereditary peers, he said.

Highlighting the "overwhelming support" given to the (Hereditary Peers) (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill at committee stage in the Lords, Lord Grocott said: "For the good sense of the house the sooner this Bill is on the statute book the better."

Labour former Cabinet minister Lord Blunkett said: "The whole argument about this is so arcane that if people really knew what we were saying as well as what we are doing they'd think we had lost our marbles."