Party’s leader in the Lords dismisses idea that Keir Starmer would rush through dozens of appointments

Labour has ruled out immediately packing the House of Lords with dozens of peers if Keir Starmer wins the next general election.

The Labour leader has already scaled back on his previous pledges to abolish the Lords and replace it with a fully elected second chamber in his first term.

Angela Smith, Labour’s leader in the Lords, said on Monday the party would need to “refresh our numbers” since the Tories have more than 100 peers in the upper chamber than Labour. However, she dismissed the idea that Starmer would rush through the appointment of his own peers after an election win.

Smith told the House magazine: “The idea that Keir Starmer is on day one going to have a list of 100 people to put here is cloud cuckoo … If you look at the numbers at the moment, the Tories have over 100 more than us, and they still lose votes.

  • mannycalavera
    4·
    11 months ago

    However, she dismissed the idea that Starmer would rush through the appointment of his own peers after an election win.

    Classic. Title implies that this is a decision that the Labour party has formally taken and agreed upon. But dig a little deeper and it is just a throw away comment from one Labour peer. Nevertheless the impresion has been given that Labour won’t pack the Lords.

    They will, they’d be daft not to, but whether it is in the first week or the first hundred days is the question. They also won’t abolish the Lords. And they also won’t do voting reform.

    Now is not the time when the country faces so many crises left by 15 years of Tory government.

    That’s what they’ll say and kick this into the long grass. When actually both can be true. 15 years of shit government is precisely why we need to stop that happening again and bring about reform to the upper chamber as well as fundamental root and branch change to the voting system.