Labour appoints 30 new peers including Sue Gray

The government has appointed 30 new Labour peers including a string of ex-MPs and Sir Keir Starmer loyalists.

The prime minister’s former chief of staff Sue Gray has also been handed a seat in the House of Lords, confirming reports earlier in the week.

It comes only two months after she left her role as the prime minister’s chief of staff, amid internal rows over her influence.

The Conservatives appointed six new peers including former deputy prime minister Therese Coffey and Toby Young, the associate editor of The Spectator and son of former Labour peer Lord Michael Young. The Lib Dems have appointed two peers.

The list of new peers contains 18 men and 20 women.

A series of Labour MPs who lost their seats or stood down at the last election will now join the House of Lords – including Thangam Debbonaire, Julie Elliot, Lyn Brown and Steve McCabe.

Luciana Berger and Phil Wilson, two Labour MPs who lost their seat at the 2019 election are to become peers, as is Margaret Curran who lost her Glasgow East seat in 2015.

Last month, Gray had decided not to take up a post as the prime minister’s envoy to the nations and regions that she was offered after departing as Sir Keir’s chief of staff.

Gray maintains it was her decision to leave the job, but her exit came following weeks of negative headlines and briefings against her, including a row over her salary.

She was replaced by Morgan McSweeney, with whom she had reportedly clashed in his previous role as Sir Keir’s chief political adviser.

Ms Gray, who became a household name after leading the government’s internal inquiry into the Partygate scandal, left the civil service to become a senior adviser to Sir Keir last year.

In 2022, Labour said it planned to abolish the 805-member Lords, replacing it with a “new, reformed upper chamber”.

But this was watered down before July’s election, with Labour committing to consult on plans for an alternative second chamber, whilst immediately axing the 92 places for hereditary peers and introducing a retirement age of 80.

The party also vowed to introduce new rules on participation, and a new process to make it easier to remove “disgraced” peers.

To get their legislation through parliament at speed Labour will need to be able to win major votes in the House of Lords.

The Conservatives have the most peers, with 273, while Labour has 187 and the Liberal Democrats have 78.

There are also 184 “crossbench” peers who are not aligned to any party.