Last night, The Telegraph gave us advanced sight of the latest political cronies set to don ermine and enter the Lords. Boris is appointing a group of Brexiteers, Tory donors, former MPs, and Paul Dacre – though shakes up the list with top Remainer Sir Nicholas Soames. Labour, on the other hand, finally seems on the verge of getting former deputy leader Tom Watson into the upper house. The LibDems get precisely zero new Lords…
Tom Watson’s impending investiture is arguably the most surprising on the list, given just two years ago it was widely reported that he’d been blocked by the House of Lords Appointments Commission following a nomination by Jeremy Corbyn.
At the time, The Independent, The Sun, The Guardian and The Times all confidently reported that Watson’s blocking from the Lords was wholly down to his scandalous support for allegations of a Westminster paedophile ring, made by the jailed fantasist Carl Beech. Back in 2020, it was former Tory MP Harvey Proctor who successfully led the campaign to deny Watson a peerage after being smeared as part of Operation Midland.
In nominating Tom Watson for a peerage Sir Keir Starmer has illustrated a distinct lack of judgment.
— Harvey Proctor (@KHarveyProctor) October 2, 2022
Starmer has also displayed complete disregard for Lord Bew & the House of Lords Appointments Commission who refused Watson’s first nomination by Corbyn in 2020!
What exactly has changed in the last two years?
