PM still wants to downsize Lords despite 36 new peers

BORIS JOHNSON’S 36 new peers are needed to maintain the “expertise” within the House of Lords, Downing Street has said.

The peers, which included Jo Johnson, the Prime Minister’s brother, Sir Ian Botham, the cricketer, and Evgeny Lebedev, the newspaper proprietor, were announced despite Mr Johnson having said he believed the size of the Lords needed to be addressed.

Just one third of the new peers are women.

Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker, has accused Mr Johnson of U-turning on a promise made by Theresa May to show restraint in new appointments. The new batch will mean there will be almost 200 more members of the Lords than the House of Commons.

However, Downing Street justified the number of nominations, saying the new members were needed to ensure the upper chamber had the “appropriate expertise”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It remains the case that the size of the House of Lords needs addressing but given retirements and other departures, some new members are needed to ensure the Lords has appropriate expertise and it continues to fulfil its role in scrutinising and revising legislation.”

The spokesman added that it was a “long-standing convention that individuals can be nominated for an honour or peerage in recognition of their public and political service and that prime ministers can draw up dissolution and resignation lists”.

He rejected Lord Fowler’s suggestion that some of the new peers would be “passengers” in the chamber, as he added that “all of the individuals were nominated in recognition of their contribution to society and their public and political service”.

Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, accused Mr Johnson of “cronyism”.

“Pressure is mounting for an overhaul of the Lords, after this shocking batch of cronyistic appointments,” Mr

‘By appointing a host of ex-mps, party loyalists and his own brother, the PM is inviting total derision’

Hughes said. “Even the Lord Speaker recognises that this situation is untenable and [it] has completely overridden even the Lords’ modest attempts at self-regulation.

“At over 800 members, this bloated chamber is making a mockery of democracy.”

When the names were announced Mr Hughes said the 36 new peers could cost the taxpayer £1.1million a year if they all submitted regular claims for allowances.

“By appointing a host of ex-mps, party loyalists and his own brother, the PM is inviting total derision,” he said. “That he can get away with it shows what a private member’s club this House is.”