Starmer backs Brown’s plan to abolish House of Lords

SIR KEIR STARMER will today pledge to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected upper chamber with a higher proportion of Scottish seats.

The Labour leader will endorse a blueprint drawn up by Gordon Brown that will back “enhanced Scottish representation” in a new Assembly of the Regions and Nations.

Speaking before a joint launch of the plan, titled A New Britain: Renewing Our Democracy and Rebuilding Our Economy, with Sir Keir in Leeds and Edinburgh, Mr Brown said it would give Scots who wanted constitutional change an alternative to independence.

Sir Keir will hail the plan for political and economic devolution as “the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people”.

Among 40 recommendations is a call to give local communities new powers over skills, transport, planning and culture to drive growth – including handing elected mayors and devolved administrations power to issue compulsory purchase orders on vacant sites.

The report also proposes measures to clean up politics including a new anticorruption agency, an integrity and ethics commission to replace the various existing ad hoc bodies and a ban on most second jobs for MPS. Mr Brown’s blueprint will propose a new Council of the UK chaired by the Prime Minister that will examine issues common to the four home nations and manage intergovernmental relations.

“Thousands” of civil service jobs could be transferred from London to Scotland, with Mr Brown saying the report would name 12 agencies that could be moved north. It states that Scotland must be represented on UK national bodies such as the Bank of England and energy regulator Ofgem “by right and as a matter of course”.

The Scottish Government could be given more borrowing powers and allow SNP ministers to enter international agreements and organisations in relation to devolved policy areas, such as the EU’S Erasmus student exchange.

In an attempt to challenge the centralisation of power by Ms Sturgeon’s government, the blueprint suggests that London-style mayors or provosts be directly elected in Scotland’s cities.

The First Minister wants to use the next general election as a de facto referendum on Scottish independence.

But Mr Brown cited polling showing the majority of Scots want a common UK state pension and welfare system, no internal borders for people or goods and the protection of the UK intelligence and counter-terrorism services.