Story Highlight
– Nigel Farage requests peer appointments from Prime Minister.
– Reform UK holds four Commons seats, lacks Lords representation.
– Farage cites democratic disparity in House of Lords.
– Defence Secretary criticizes Farage’s previous abolition stance.
– Reform UK claims leadership in polls and local elections.
Full Story
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to permit him to select members for the House of Lords, expressing concerns about what he perceives as an imbalance in democratic representation within the upper chamber. In a correspondence addressed to Starmer, Farage highlighted the apparent injustice of granting more seats to parties with fewer Members of Parliament (MPs).
Currently, Reform UK holds four seats in the House of Commons and leads ten councils in England; however, it lacks representation in the Lords. The process of appointing peers is traditionally under the prime minister’s jurisdiction, who is not bound by constitutional obligations to promote members from opposition parties. Nonetheless, it is customary for prime ministers to solicit nominations from opposition leaders.
A spokesperson for Downing Street commented, “The process for appointments to the House of Lords follows established conventions and is guided by advice from the House of Lords Appointments Commission and other relevant bodies.” While political factions may make suggestions regarding potential peers, final decisions adhere to longstanding protocols.
Sources close to the appointment process informed that, typically, the leader of the main opposition party is given a chance to nominate a limited number of peers, although there are no binding rules, leaving the final choice to the current prime minister.
The House of Lords Appointments Commission plays a vetting role but does not influence which parties are invited to nominate peers. In response to Farage’s letter, Defence Secretary John Healey remarked on LBC, criticising Farage for advocating the abolition of the House of Lords while now seeking to appoint “his cronies” to it.
The House of Lords serves as a crucial component of Parliament, responsible for reviewing government actions independently of the House of Commons. Members of the Lords, referred to as peers, engage in legislative scrutiny and recommend amendments to proposed laws, with the peerage currently numbering over 800.
In his letter, Farage pointed out that Reform UK secured over 4.1 million votes in the recent general election, subsequently achieving significant victories in local government elections and leading many national opinion polls. He emphasised the need for reform in the Lords, referencing the representation of the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which collectively hold 13 peers, as well as the Liberal Democrats, who possess 76 peers despite obtaining fewer votes than Reform in the last election. The Liberal Democrats are the third largest party in the Commons with 72 seats.
“None of this holds water any longer given the seismic shifts that have taken place in British politics,” Farage stated, describing his proposal to appoint peers as “modest,” but did not specify any potential nominees.
In recent local elections, Reform UK experienced considerable success and narrowly won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by a mere six votes, prompting Farage to assert that his party had become the principal opposition.
In December, Sir Keir Starmer appointed 30 new Labour peers, including his former chief of staff Sue Gray, while the Conservative Party added six and the Liberal Democrats two. Additionally, last year MPs supported initiatives to eliminate hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
