LBC presenter Nick Ferrari pressed a senior Labour minister after the government faced criticism for appointing 25 new peers to the House of Lords.
The controversy erupted after ministers were accused of backtracking on past pledges to reform the upper chamber.
In 2022, while in opposition, Keir Starmer vowed Labour would “rebuild trust” by replacing the “unelected House of Lords” with a “new, smaller, democratically-elected second chamber”.
Nick Ferrari Questions Labour’s Reform Claims
News broke on Wednesday night that the prime minister had elevated 25 individuals to the Lords to bolster support for government legislation. Among them were Matthew Doyle, former No.10 director of communications, and Katie Martin, a former chief of staff to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Ferrari confronted local government minister Alison McGovern on Thursday morning, asking, “Why should my listeners believe a thing [Starmer] said?”
McGovern replied, “Because we’ve been the party taking the steps to deal with the House of Lords, getting rid of the hereditary peers –”
Ferrari sharply interrupted, “You just put more in, minister!”
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‘No, No, No, No!’ Ferrari Pushes Back
McGovern attempted to argue that 14 years of Conservative government had left the Lords “unbalanced”. But Ferrari cut her off, “No, no, no, no. I’m sorry, that’s going to VAR. You cannot blame Sir Keir’s decision on 14 years of Conservative rule.
“Your party said it would be scrapped. You’re putting more in!”
McGovern responded, “My point is you can blame the unbalanced nature of the House of Lords after 14 years of Tory rule and the rate at which they are putting people in. What we are doing is getting rid of the hereditaries because it is not right, in this day and age, in 2025, that anyone inherits the right to legislate.
“The next step is to limit the number by introducing an age limit.”
She added that the upper chamber had “got in the way” of a number of Labour’s flagship policies.
Labour Defends Its Approach Amid Calls of Hypocrisy
McGovern faced similar pushback on Times Radio, where presenter Stig Abell described Labour’s move as “astounding”.
She replied, “I don’t think we promised to get rid of it but the next stage of House of Lords reform is to make sure that people have to retire at a certain age, at 80. And that will reduce, clearly that will reduce the number of people in the House of Lords.
“I think everybody wants to see parliament be representative and do a good job. In order to do that, we have to make the changes that we are doing. And meanwhile, we need to appoint good people who come from a range of backgrounds to take decisions.
“It’s a long-standing tradition I guess that people who’ve given service politically are appointed to the House of Lords. And look, not everyone will agree that political service is a part of public service.”
A Labour source also said, “The Tories stuffed the House of Lords, creating a serious imbalance that has allowed them to frustrate our plans to make working families better off. This needs to be corrected.”
Electoral Reform Society Warns of an Already ‘Bloated’ Chamber
The move has been strongly criticised by Electoral Reform Society chief executive Darren Hughes, who said, “Firstly, it is absurd for the Lords, which at more than 800 peers is already the second largest legislative chamber after China’s National People’s Congress, to be getting even more members.
“It is also patently ridiculous that the government has now added more peers into the Lords than the 92 hereditary peers it is in the process of removing.
“The ending of the remaining hereditary peers is a step in the right direction… But [the new peerages] highlight just how unsustainable a wholly unelected and unrestrained chamber is.”
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