Labour is drawing up plans to appoint dozens of peers to the House of Lords in order to ensure the agenda of a Sir Keir Starmer government is implemented.
Though Starmer has vocally opposed Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, which awarded seven peerages, and pledged eventually to abolish the Lords, party insiders acknowledge that he would have to appoint many peers to avoid a Labour government becoming mired in conflict with the upper chamber.
There are only 174 Labour peers, making up 22 per cent of the Lords, fewer even than the 183 unaligned crossbench peers. The Conservatives have 263 peers, meaning that they would remain the largest party in the upper chamber unless Starmer ennobled almost 100 Labour politicians.
A senior party source said
