Johnson’s push for more peers will ‘trash’ constitutional norms

BORIS JOHNSON has been accused of trying to “trash constitutional norms” over reports that he is considering appointing dozens of Tories to the House of Lords when he leaves No 10.

The Prime Minister is set to raise numbers in the Upper House as part of a controversial resignation honours list to be published in September.

Baroness Hayman, a former Lords speaker, said the plan could lead to “all sorts of grave consequences”, while Lord Fowler, another former Lords speaker, said it was “potentially disastrous” and could help “bring the whole system into some kind of contempt”.

On Saturday, Tory leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were urged by the current Lord Speaker, Lord Mcfall of Alcluith, not to take the same approach as Mr Johnson to appointments to the upper chamber.

Lord Mcfall warned in a letter that any attempt to swell the ranks of peers “undermines public confidence in our parliamentary system”.

Baroness Hayman told the BBC’S World This Weekend: “The proposal is part of a trend to trash constitutional norms. So, in that sense, I think it’s a very bad idea. It has all sorts of grave consequences. And I’ve actually been surprised at how much anger there is across the House, basically, to put a large number of predominantly Tory peers into the House now.

“The House of Lords has provided difficulties for the Government. No government likes that. Most prime ministers understand that it’s actually good for democracy for that to happen.

“I’m not sure Boris Johnson understands that having a challenging House of Lords actually improves Government policy and improves legislation.”

Asked on Times Radio about the plan to create a large number of peers, Lord Fowler said: “The aim of those of us in the House of Lords, by which I exclude the Government, is to reduce the numbers ... what are we getting from Boris, in his last hurrah, is to increase it.”

He added: “People don’t like seeing this because you’re getting peers who are being appointed ... because they’ve made contributions, financial contributions to the party and [for] all kinds of other reasons.

“It’s no way to run the House of Lords. And most of all, it brings the House of Lords into some contempt.”

Lord Norton of Louth, one of the foremost experts on Parliament and the British constitution, told the BBC that the creation of new peers should be about “quality, not quantity”.