Why Labour is planning to ‘pack’ the House of Lords with new members
The House of Lords could see some major changes if Labour win the July election. Here's how things could change, and why.
In brief...
- If Labour wins after 14 years of Conservative rule, they will face challenges from a Conservative-dominated House of Lords, potentially hindering their legislative agenda.
- Labour may appoint new peers with financial and policy expertise to overcome resistance and ensure their policies can be enacted.
- Labour leader Keir Starmer plans to enforce an age cutoff of 80 for Lords and might expedite the introduction of new peers to gain legislative support, marking a shift from his earlier proposal to abolish the House of Lords.
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If the polls are to be believed, Labour will be holding all the political power after 4 July.
Following 14 years of Conservative governments, the UK could be on the verge of seeing how Labour handles problems like the cost of living crisis, immigration, and the country's relationship with the EU.
They will be in a position to deliver the promises in their manifesto and pass bills through the House of Commons they want to become law.
But there could be one snag in this process: the House of Lords.
After 14 years of Conservative governments, the second chamber is dominated by Tory-supporting Lords, rewarded with peerages for various contributions to society and the party itself.
So if Labour wants to make good on those pledges, that’ll be one of the first things it needs to change in order to turn its promises to law.
What do The News Agents say?
“They will pack the house with new Labour peers because, frankly, they don't want to take any chances of pushing forward transformative legislation that then gets blocked, stalled or modified by a Conservative majority in the Lords,” says Emily Maitlis.
But she says the names they choose might not be the usual Labour peers voters expect.
“I think they'll be looking for people who have financial experience, maths experience. Most of the Labour lords are more of a specific type.
“You can easily get human rights lawyers, you can easily get NGOs, you can get trade union leaders. You can't always get people who can tell you how the city runs, or tell or tell you how to get a financial bill through.”
Maitlis also says she was told by a senior Labour source that there may be some familiar names among the potential new Labour lords, “people we have forgotten about in the last 15 years”, which could make for an interesting shake up in the second chamber.
When a bill is passed through the House of Commons, it then moves to the House of Lords for approval before it becomes law, and describing Keir Starmer as “sounding at the moment like a man in a hurry,” to enact Labour policies Maitlis believes the new lords will enter sooner, rather than later, to make this process easier for a new government.
Lewis Goodall describes the House of Lords as being “very helpful” for governments to reward their political allies, and notes that Labour hasn’t had “the keys to the patronage machine” for the past 14 years. This could, of course, change after 4 July.
“It basically stays unreformed because Prime Ministers find it very helpful to be able to reward political allies, to have the expediency of occasionally putting someone in the legislature,” he says.
“It can be helpful. It can be politically useful, and as I say, Labour have not had access to that for 14 years.
“And there's going to be a lot of people that Starmer, in one way or the other, is going to want to reward.”
How will Keir Starmer reform the House of Lords?
There are currently 784 members of the House of Lords, with only 650 MPs in the House of Commons, a ratio Jon Sopel describes as “absolute absurdity”.
But that could also change under Starmer and a Labour government, with the Labour leader planning to force any lords over the age of 80 to retire from their parliamentary role, a move Maitlis describes as “not a bad thing”.
“The age cutoff is a good idea,” adds Sopel.
“Maybe someone should tell American politics.”
Starmer’s promise for the age 80 cut-off for members of the House of Lords is a step down from his original plans for the second chamber, previously saying in 2022 he would abolish it entirely, replacing it with an elected chamber.