As Britain lurches towards multiple economic and social crises under Starmer, the government is forcing yet more legislative time to be spent on parliament debating its own existence. It’s a crunch day in the Upper Chamber as their Lordships tackle day one of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill. The title is misleading, it’s not really about abolishing hereditary peers…
In fact, Labour’s Lords reform bill is an unprecedented attempt to gerrymander the political composition of the upper chamber. Guido has seen analysis circulating among peers opposed to the government: “We do not accept the Government removing active parliamentarians for political advantage. Removing members of our House by legislative force is a very different proposal and sets a dangerous precedent. If this executive can expel one group of peers by virtue of their majority in the Commons, future executives could use the same argument to expel any other group.” Chilling…
As things stand, the stats show the Bill will remove 79 Conservative and or Independent peers from the legislature – and just four who regularly vote with Labour. Despite all the fuss about Tory peerages, Starmer has been appointing his own new peers at a faster rate than any PM in the past three decades, meaning he will soon gain a majority in the Lords…
Under some of the proposals up to 46% of the current chamber could be removed by the end of this Parliament – the biggest purge of active lawmakers by the executive since Cromwell, and a huge executive power grab by the Labour government. Starmer is reshaping the House of Lords as a Labour controlled chamber – meaning parliament will be dominated by Labour in both Houses. One source described the move as a ‘Soviet style’ power grab. Labour’s not interested in Lords reform, just in removing political opponents who hold the government to account..
Labour is ramming through the Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) draft bill to gut farmers’ delinked payments – successor to the pre-Brexit Basic Payment Scheme that propped up food production and kept farmers’ incomes steady – slashing them by a brutal 76% in 2025, capping payouts at a measly £7,200. Despite DEFRA’s own stats showing 42% of farms were unprofitable without the BPS subsidy…
The cash from payment cuts to farmers are designed to fund environmental stewardship such as Environmental Land Management schemes. Last week the House of Lords saw two Labour peers tear into the proposals. Lord Grantchester blasted the Treasury’s knack for “strangling every good initiative at birth,” warning “we cannot and must not lose sight of the role of all farms in hitting environmental and sustainability targets.” Not the first time the green dream has been slammed for coming at too high a price…
Labour peer Lord Rooker refused to vote against amendments tabled by the LibDems and Tories against the reductions: “It is only my respect for this House and our procedures that prevents me walking out, because I have not the slightest intention of voting to support these regulations. I will abstain on both amendments. I will not hang around during the votes; I shall go.” Reeves is facing heat from her own on this one…
Back in 2022 it was decided that the Peers Entrance to parliament needed to be renovated for security reasons. It was given a £2 million budget which had ballooned to £7 million within a year…
Work has two years after that finished on the door, which is now operational. Guido hears the total cost of the operation ran up to in the region of a whopping £9 million…
Guido has asked UK DOGE to conduct some analysis. For that taxpayer bill you could:
That’s for one door, which multiple people have said doesn’t even work on a regular basis. The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised…
A mind-boggling move this week from Labour. During an otherwise unremarkable debate on the Bus Services (No.2) Bill in the House of Lords, the government ordered its peers to vote against an amendment (from one of their own backbenchers) to introduce mandatory reporting of serious assaults on the bus network. The Tories inflicted a government defeat – becoming more and more common in the Lords. Successfully passing an amendment to require all bus operators to record violent incidents, in an effort to aid police detection rates…
Recorded violence on Britain’s public transport network is up, with a 20% increase on last year in attacks on women and girls, according to figures from the British Transport Police Authority. Labour are not even doing the basics to crush crime…
Susan Ann Gray, Baroness Gray of Tottenham, has been introduced to the Lords today. Failing upwards…
Plans are well advanced for Starmer to approve a substantial number of new peerages to party veterans including former MPs Julie Elliott, Lyn Brown, Kevin Brennan and ousted frontbencher Thangam Debbonaire. No peep on Labour’s plan to publicly justify every peerage awarded…
Labour is defending the political peerages as insertions of “proven workhorses in parliament” into complicated Lords procedures as Downing Street considers whether to roll them out alongside the New Year honours. The FT initially claimed that sacked Sue Gray wasn’t sure to be on the list which has since been clarified – she is. As Guido reported in October Gray herself was absolutely sure of it…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”