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.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
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.
In its first few years the party also hopes to increase the powers of the body that oversees appointments to prevent inappropriate people being given peerages.
Labour has vowed to use its first years in power to focus on a number of priorities including its “new deal” for working people that would ban zero-hours contracts and end qualifying periods for basic rights such as sick pay and parental leave.
Smith confirmed this, adding: “If I’m honest, I think the first few years of a Labour government will be dealing with economic growth and the cost of living … There’ll be something about House of Lords reform in the manifesto.
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