The six new Tory peers who will enter the House of Lords are “true radicals, the smart and the very brave”, Kemi Badenoch has said.
Toby Young, the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, is among those who have been nominated as a Conservative life peer by the Tory leader.
Mrs Badenoch’s nominations also include Liz Truss’s deputy prime minister Dame Therese Coffey, as well as former housing minister Rachel Maclean, Oxford professor Nigel Biggar, former deputy mayor of London Roger Evans and Joanne Cash, a barrister and co-founder of Parent Gym.
Sue Gray, the partygate investigator who went on to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, was named among 30 new Labour peers.
Downing Street announced a raft of new nominations to the House of Lords on Friday afternoon, which also included former shadow cabinet minister Thangam Debbonaire.
Former MP Luciana Berger, who resigned from Labour in 2019 over the antisemitism scandal before rejoining in 2023, will also sit on the Labour Lords benches.
Overall, 38 new appointments were announced, including the six from the Tories, Labour’s 30, and two from the Liberal Democrats.
Writing for the Conservative Home website, Mrs Badenoch warned “a battle for the soul” of the right of politics is coming.
She added: “To win we will need those who understand duty and sacrifice, who fight for others, not for themselves or for recognition, true radicals, the smart and the very brave.
“That is the story of my appointments to the House of Lords today.”
She described the nominees as “formidable” Conservatives, who would help to take the fight to Labour.
Most prominent among Sir Keir’s nominees, former civil servant Ms Gray became known in 2022 with the report into Downing Street parties, and then became the Labour leader’s chief of staff in opposition before following him into Number 10.
She quit the role in October after a series of internal rows.
Dame Therese told the PA news agency: “I’m honoured that the leader of my party Kemi Badenoch has put me forward and I look forward to being an active member of the Lords.”
She said she would be thinking through what her key priorities would be in the House of Lords and was looking forward to returning to Parliament.
“It’s a great end to a very extraordinary year for me,” she added.
Mike Katz, the national chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement and Anne Longfield, who served as the Children’s Commissioner for England between 2015 and 2021 will also be made life peers.
Among the other Labour names on the list put forward by Sir Keir are former MPs Ms Debbonaire, Julie Elliott, Lyn Brown, Steve McCabe and Kevin Brennan, as well as former Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones.
Ms Debbonaire had served as Labour’s shadow culture secretary but lost her seat at the general election to the Green Party.
I'm honoured to be asked to join the House of Lords. I’m grateful to the Prime Minister for giving me this opportunity to serve the country and support the Labour government he leads to transform the UK.
— Thangam Debbonaire (@ThangamDebb) December 20, 2024
Mr McCabe said he was “very pleased” to have been nominated and would use his position in the Lords to continue pursuing interests he championed in the Commons.
“I want to help the Labour Government succeed and I want to continue to look after the interests of people of the area that I served as an MP for many years,” he told the PA news agency.
Mr McCabe, the former Birmingham Selly Oak MP, listed better diagnoses of heart valve disease, access to IVF and his work with Labour Friends of Israel among the issues he would like to pursue.
Ms Gray is not the only member of Sir Keir’s inner circle to be nominated, with Deborah Mattinson, his former director of strategy, also getting a nod.
There are also two nominations from the leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey, including Mark Pack who has been president of the party since 2020.
Labour has pledged to reform the House of Lords and has already moved to get rid of hereditary peers.
The announcement will boost Sir Keir’s numbers in the upper chamber, which sat at 187 Labour peers compared with 273 from the Conservatives.
A Labour source said that the Conservatives had created an “imbalance” in the Lords that needed to be “corrected”.
They said: “The Tories stuffed the House of Lords, creating a serious imbalance in the chamber. This needs to be corrected to drive through the Government’s plan for change and deliver on our mandate from the British people.
“We are committed to an overdue programme of reform and have already laid legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords.”
