As reported by The Guardian, the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May may move to create new seats within the House of Lords in order to stack government voting in her favour as Brexit conditions continue to get defeated within her own Parliament.
Key quotes
“Theresa May is expected to approve the creation of about 10 Tory peers and hand at least one to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party in an attempt to improve her weak position in the House of Lords, which has already voted 15 times against her government over Brexit.
Constitutionally, there is supposed to be a rough balance between the two main parties in the Lords, although at present there are 244 Conservative peers, including 49 hereditary peers, and 187 Labour peers. However, the Conservatives are far from a majority in a chamber that has a total of 780 members and has become the principal parliamentary opposition to Brexit.
That has meant that May’s government has been repeatedly defeated over the EU withdrawal bill, with peers on issues such as the customs union, the Irish border and Brexit’s final date of March 29th, 2019 from the legislation.
Labour is expected to add three peers to its total representation, with the former party general secretary and Martha Osamor, a race equality campaigner and the mother of MP Kate Osamor, heavily tipped to be ennobled.
That prompted a complaint from Adonis, who said it effectively validated the creation of new peers at such a sensitive time. “I’m very surprised that the Labour party is playing this game by agreeing to make a small number of peers because it legitimises the actions of the Tories.””
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