Labour set to name dozens of new peers

Labour is set to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an effort to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.

- Eleni Courea

Senior Labour figures have drawn up a list of peerages to bolster the party benches and help implement its legislative programme if it wins the election on 4 July. The Conservatives have 104 more peers than Labour, while less than a third of the 784 members of parliament's second chamber are women.

The plan comes despite Keir Starmer's pledge to eventually abolish the Lords and amid growing concerns over the ballooning size and cost of the chamber.

Starmer's advisers and shadow ministers have successfully argued that he needs to make the appointments in the short term. Labour sources said there was a determination to increase the number of female peers and to appoint people who would be active. Several women outside politics are being lined up for peerages so they can also serve as ministers in a Labour government.

Sue Gray, Starmer’s chief of staff, is drawing up the list with Morgan McSweeney, the party’s campaign director, closely involved. “Sue Gray has the pen on the list,” a senior party figure said.

There are now 171 Labour peers, of whom about 130 reliably turn up to vote on a day-to-day basis. The Conservatives have 275 peers, the Liberal Democrats 79, and 180 peers are non-aligned. It means that unless Starmer appoints about 100 peers, the Tories will outnumber Labour in the chamber.