Labour ministers today attempted to defend Sir Keir Starmer’s U-turn on the House of Lords after the Prime Minister stuffed the unelected chamber with more peers.
In his latest batch of appointments to the Lords, Sir Keir announced a fresh list of 25 Labour peerages as he gave jobs for life to cronies and ex-advisers.
There were also five nominations for peerages from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, three from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, and one crossbench nomination.
It means Sir Keir has now overseen the creation of 96 peers since becoming PM, which is more than the 92 hereditary peers he is removing from the Lords.
Campaigners said it was ‘ridiculous’ the Lords is swelling in size when it is the second-largest legislative chamber in the world – only behind China’s National People’s Congress.
Sir Keir’s decision to make the Lords bigger also comes after he previously vowed to ‘abolish’ the upper chamber and branded it ‘indefensible’.
Labour figures were open that the latest peerages announced by Sir Keir were part of a bid to eliminate opposition to the Government in the Lords.
Wednesday’s blitz of appointments came after ministers recently faced a battle with peers over their flagship workers’ rights legislation.
Local government minister Alison McGovern told GB News on Thursday: ‘The issue is – after 14 years of Conservative government and the number of people that they put in the House of Lords – it is in no way balanced in the way that it ought to be constitutionally.
‘We were elected on a manifesto. We should be able to get our manifesto commitments through the House of Lords.
‘We’re appointing new peers from various walks of life, along with other parties. That is, at the moment, the only way that people can be put into the House of Lords.
‘And that is how we’re responding to the situation that we face.’
Ms McGovern also stressed Labour was ‘bringing forward proposals that will limit the length of time people can spend in the House of Lords’ while intoducing a minimum retirement age of 80 for peers.
‘We are changing the House of Lords and we’ll go further,’ she added.
Downing Street later refused to be drawn on suggestions the Lib Dems were granted more peerages than the Tories as a means of dissuading the party from opposing the Government’s Employment Rights Bill.
The PM’s official spokesman said: ‘You will appreciate it wouldn’t be for me to comment on political peerages.
‘It is a longstanding precedent across the political spectrum that governments recommend new peers to the sovereign.
‘We will continue to progress our reforms to the House of Lords while these new peers carry out their work to scrutinise legislation.’
The spokesman also insisted that Sir Keir remains committed to overhauling the Lords and replacing it with ‘an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the nations and regions’.
In 2022, Sir Keir vowed to abolish the Lords and strip politicians of the power to appoint people to Parliament’s upper chamber.
But he later backtracked on those plans and Labour’s manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election only promised to ‘consult’ on proposals for replacing the Lords.
It was recently claimed that Sir Keir is on track to ‘eliminate’ opposition to his Labour Government’s agenda in the Lords within two years.
Nikki da Costa, a former adviser to Tory PMs Theresa May and Boris Johnson, said: ‘With the removal of the hereditary peers, and the pace at which Labour are appointing peers, they are on track to eliminate all defeats by 2027. Clearly that’s the plan.’
Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: ‘Keir Starmer himself not long ago described the wholly unelected and grossly bloated House of Lords as ‘indefensible’.
‘Nothing has changed since then so it is deeply disappointing to see even more peers being stuffed into the upper chamber.
‘Firstly, it is absurd for the Lords, which at more than 800 peers is already the second largest legislative chamber after China’s National People’s Congress, to be getting even more members.
It is also patently ridiculous that the Government has now added more peers into the Lords than the 92 hereditary peers it is in the process of removing.
‘The ending of the remaining hereditary peers is a step in the right direction, as people should not be making our laws because of who their parents were.
‘But today’s events highlight just how unsustainable a wholly unelected and unrestrained chamber is.
‘If public trust in politics is to be rebuilt from the record lows to which it has slumped, this ‘business as usual’ cycle of an ever-inflating unelected Lords needs to be broken
‘And the Prime Minister needs to now make good on his pledge to reform the upper house into a smaller democratic chamber that is accountable to the British people.’
A Labour source suggested the PM would continue to make appointments to the Lords in a bid to stop opposition peers from blocking the Government’s legislation.
They said: ‘The Tories stuffed the House of Lords, creating a serious imbalance that has allowed them to frustrate our plans to make working families better off.
‘This needs to be corrected to deliver on our mandate from the British people.
‘We will continue to progress our programme of reform, which includes removing the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords.’
Read more
- Could the Tory party face a drastic reduction in new peers amid fierce opposition to Labour’s controversial House of Lords reforms?
- Will Labour’s audacious plans to cull absentee peers finally whip the oversized House of Lords into shape?
- Is Keir Starmer’s alleged cronyism reshaping the House of Lords with 25 new peerages?
- Is cronyism rearing its ugly head in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party with 30 potential new peers boosting the House of Lords?
- Has Starmer’s move to appoint new Labour peers, including the controversial Sue Gray, ignited fierce debates on his promises to reform the House of Lords?
