Lord Shaffaq Mohammed, who describes himself as a "working-class lad from Sheffield," has reflected on his first 18 months as a member of the House of Lords, telling of the pride his family would never have imagined. Born in Kashmir, he moved to Tinsley in Sheffield aged four in 1977, rose through local politics to lead the city's Liberal Democrats in 2011, and was nominated for a life peerage in December 2024 before taking his seat as Lord Mohammed of Tinsley in February. His story matters as part of a wider debate about how representative the Lords is, coming soon after the abolition of hereditary peers.

He recalled an emotional moment hearing Winston Churchill's grandson Nicolas Soames speak, reflecting that while his own grandfather tended camels in Kashmir, their votes now count equally, and that his late father, a steelworker who died in 1995, could never have dreamed of him reaching Sheffield Council, let alone the Lords. Now 54, he says he is sometimes called "young man" given the chamber's average age of over 70, and argues the Lords still fails to reflect ordinary society, contrasting his 2011 Skoda with peers arriving in Rolls-Royces. Despite holding a life peerage himself, he says he would vote to abolish life peers too, calling for more voices from backgrounds such as hospital cleaners and car mechanics.