House of Lords (Image: Getty)
Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer is preparing to pack the House of Lords with nearly 19 new Labour peers. He is expected to announce the names days before he leaves office. It will take the total of Labour peers appointed by Sir Keir to 135 since he came to power two years ago. That is substantially more than than the 92 hereditary peers who lost their seats as a result of government reforms.
The new list is due to be rubber-stamped by the House of Lords appointments commission on Monday. It is controversial because Sir Keir has given fewer peerages to the Tories than the Liberal Democrats – despite Kemi Badenoch’s party having a third more seats. While Labour will have 19 new peers, the Tories have been given only four new members and the Liberal Democrats five. Reform UK, meanwhile, is still yet to be awarded a single peerage.
Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
Labour has previously insisted it needs to create new peerages to address an imbalance in the Lords after 14 years of Conservative government.
Before the general election Sir Keir described the current system as “indefensible”, accusing the Tories of handing out political peerages to “cronies and lackeys”.
One Conservative source described the latest appointments as a “blatant attempt to gerrymander the Lords”.
“It is yet another example of Labour’s disregard for constitutional convention for their own political ends,” they told the Times newspaper.
Kemi Badenoch (Image: Getty)
They suggested that the Liberal Democrats had been given more seats because of a deal with Labour.
In recent years, while Lib Dem MPs have voted against contentious government legislation, the party’s peers have often quietly backed Starmer’s proposals.
“The Labour Party knows the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords will vote with them, and so they are willing to overturn all norms and precedents,” the Tory source said.
“After votes at 16 and postponing council elections, giving Ed Davey more peers than the official opposition just stinks.”
However, a Labour source said the Tories’ figure was lower because the party had managed to convert 15 hereditary peers into life peers, allowing them to remain in the Lords.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said she would not comment on peerage “speculation”.