Controversial London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan is to be honoured by the Labour government once again with an elevation to the Peerage, despite outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s criticism of the upper chamber and promises to replace it.
The UK government has published a list of political and public figures who are to be made peers of the Realm, among them Sir Sadiq Khan, the combative Mayor of London best known worldwide for his longstanding — and mutual — loathing of U.S. President Donald Trump.
While the publication of the list of 26 new peers comes in the final hours of the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, it has been emphasised these are not resignation honours.
Long established as a right of outgoing Prime Ministers to nominate favourites to be made Lords, Sir Keir previously criticised the practice and promised he would not appoint his own were he ever to become Prime Minister. The list is therefore titled “Political Peerages”, not “Resignation Honours” as it has been in previous years.
The Guardian newspaper — the journal of the British left — notes some in Labour have raised eyebrows at Starmer over his willingness to appoint peers given his previous criticism of the practice. Their report notes Starmer “has already appointed more than any of the previous four prime ministers” that preceded him.
An appointment to the House of Lords, Britain’s upper chamber that over its 1,000-year history until very recently had a hereditary membership, is sometimes used to allow non-Parliamentarians to become government cabinet ministers.
Yet Khan has briefed through spokesmen that he is not intending to join the UK’s new Andy Burnham government due to form on Monday, and will see through his two remaining years as London Mayor, reports The Daily Telegraph.
The appointment is not without a political purpose, however, with The Guardian‘s report noting Starmer’s decision to give Khan a permanent Parliament seat for life is part of his bid to “shore up Labour’s progressive flank”.
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