The Prime Minister unveiled the government’s end of year peerages in a move that looks to rebalance the composition of the House of Lords as much as rewarding party loyalty and recognising public service.
Among the list of 25 new peers announced by the Prime Minister is the Iceland Chairman Richard Walker, one of the leading businessmen to come out and endorse Labour ahead of the election; former Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes; the Chief of Staff to the Chancellor Katie Martin; the Prime Minister’s former Director of Communications Matthew Doyle; and several prominent figures in the London Labour network including Peter John OBE, former Leader of Southwark Council; Len Duvall OBE, Chair of the London Assembly; and Brent Councillor, Shama Tatler.
Other notable nominations include Sharron Davies, the Olympic medal-winning swimmer turned campaigner – nominated by Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch – while the Lib Dems recognised a number of longstanding party figures including Sarah Teather, who served as Children’s Minister in the Coalition years, and Rhiannon Leaman, Chief of Staff to the Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey.
Peerages have often been used as tools to reward political loyalty as much as a recognition of many years of public service, and this latest set is no exception. The Prime Minister will be all too aware of the challenges that the House of Lords has provided to his government to date. Most notably, the Lords and the Commons have remained in a standoff on the passage of the Employment Rights Bill, with peers inflicting another defeat on the government this week despite a number of concessions being offered up to secure its passage.
When announcing the new set of peerages, an anonymous Labour source accused the Conservatives of “stuffing the House of Lords, creating a serious imbalance that has allowed them to frustrate our plans”. Though their Commons numbers were greatly diminished following last year’s elections, the Conservatives remain the largest party in the Lords. Combined with support from crossbenchers, non-affiliated peers and the occasional Lib Dem, the Lords continue to pose a headache for Starmer, whose frustration at the slow pace of delivery of change is well known.
This latest set takes Starmer’s list of appointed peerages up to 62 since he took office in July last year. The government also says it remains committed to further reform of the Lords, abolishing the remaining hereditary peers still sitting, with further plans to introduce mandatory retirement for peers once they reach the age of 80.
Starmer can also expect to come under further pressure from within his own party to go further and faster on reforming the House of Lords. Starmer has since rowed back on his more ambitious plans to abolish the House of Lords entirely in favour of an elected second chamber. Making these bold claims in Opposition is significantly easier than the reality of enacting it in government, and with the more immediate priorities of addressing the cost of living and getting Britain building again, it is even less surprising that constitutional reform has slipped down the government’s agenda.
However, with this new set of appointees, Starmer will be hoping to tip the balance of the Lords back in his favour and go further and faster in delivering the change that he promised at last year’s election.