Keir Starmer ‘ready to create dozens of new peers’ to force through Labour’s agenda if he wins the next general election – despite vowing to ABOLISH the House of Lords
- Labour leader must appoint more peers to avoid conflict with the upper chamber
- Sir Keir opposed Johnson’s resignation honours and pledged to abolish Lords
Sir Keir Starmer is planning to appoint up to 100 new Labour peers if he wins power at the next election, despite previously vowing to abolish and replace the House of Lords.
Sir Keir is said to have plans to send dozens of supporters to the unelected upper chamber to help smooth the passage of leftwing legislation he wants to push through in his first term in office.
Labour currently has just 174 peers, to the Tories’ 263, with 183 neutral crossbenchers forming the second-largest block in the upper chamber.
Sir Keir last year vowed to reform the Lords in his first term in power, a pledge he has since walked back from, insisting he wanted to do it, but it was not a first-term priority any more.
Last week he pledged not to put in a resignation honours list, after being highly critical of Boris Johnson’s appointments. However, Labour could use the regular new Year and King’s Birthday Honours lists to alter the balance of the chamber in their favour.
‘We will need to level the playing field to get any of our legislation through. And abolishing the Lords is hardly mission critical to the first three years of a Labour government,’ a source told The Times.
Labour currently has just 174 peers, to the Tories’ 263, with 183 neutral crossbenchers forming the second-largest block in the upper chamber.
Sir Keir (pictured right at a reception with the King last night) last year vowed to reform the Lords in his first term in power, a pledge he has since walked back from, insisting he wanted to do it, but it was not a first-term priority any more.
Labour has a commanding lead in the opinion polls and the current economic turmoil facing Britain means even senior Tories are privately admitting they will do well to keep power.
House of Lords membership and the role of the appointments commission is set to be under the spotlight, as MPs prepare to launch a new inquiry into the upper chamber.
It comes as Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, published hours before he dramatically quit as an MP, continues to generate criticism and questions over the appointments of certain new peers.
Among the seven nominees in the long-awaited list were Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen and Charlotte Owen, a former adviser to Mr Johnson.
Recent days have also seen Tory politician Shaun Bailey face calls to turn down his peerage after a video emerged of a mid-lockdown party at Conservative Campaign Headquarters.
The powers of House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac), as well as the size and role of the second chamber, will be among the issues considered by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry.
The cross-party committee will examine whether the current appointments system produces an ‘effective and trusted’ upper chamber, with MPs also looking at the relationship between the Lords and the Commons.
There have been long-standing concerns over the expanding size of the second house, with Labour pledging to abolish the Lords if it wins power at the next election.
Committee chairman William Wragg said: ‘The House of Lords plays an important constitutional role in the UK political system but there has long been concern about its size, membership and the appointments process.
‘Previous inquiries from parliamentary committees concluded with clear recommendations to reduce the size of the chamber and reform the appointments process to maintain confidence in the Lords.
‘The Government committed to review the matter, yet five years on we have seen no sign of reform, and large numbers of new members continue to be appointed.
‘Debates about wholesale reform of the second chamber have been around for decades, but this inquiry seeks to consider the immediate questions, that cannot wait for such reform, before they are addressed.’
The committee will consider the possibility of reforms to the appointment system and whether changes are needed to the role and powers of Holac.
MPs will also ask whether the size of the Lords should be reduced and whether a term limit might be needed for membership, as well as what ‘expectations should be placed on peers as regards participation’.
It comes amid concerns about the attendance record of some recently appointed peers.
