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 Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.