Labor leader Keir Starmer has vowed to abolish the “indefensible” House of Lords and carry out “the largest ever transfer of power to the British people” in modern UK history as part of constitutional reform if his political space wins the general election scheduled for January 2025.
Starmer argued that many Britons voted to leave the EU in 2016 due to a “sense of a lack of democratic control” and stated that access to government would promote “devolution” to the regions and countries that make up the kingdom. The United Kingdom, including Scotland, whose government is pressing for a new referendum, following the one held in 2014, when a ‘no’ to independence was imposed with 55.3% of the vote.
Labour’s reform plan, drawn up by former prime minister Gordon Brown, who led the successful 2014 campaign to keep his fellow Scots in the UK, proposes giving parliament in Edinburgh the power to sign international agreements, among other issues.
Starmer told an audience in Leeds, northern England, that “the failure of economic growth in the last 12 years under a Conservative government was partly due to the UK’s failure to boost growth as a whole, and to rely on too much in London and south-east England.”
Starmer, who polls show has a good chance of winning the election, said he hoped to eventually push reforms through the government’s first five years, including redeploying 50,000 civil service jobs outside London.
To address widespread public discontent with Parliament, the proposal includes a crackdown on lawmakers working second jobs, as well as creating a new anti-corruption commissioner. However, the centerpiece of the 40-point plan is the abolition of the House of Lords, made up of 688 members not elected by universal suffrage, most of whom are aristocrats and archbishops.
It is the prerogative of the King to elect its members in consultation with the Prime Minister, and its most important function is to analyze and review House of Commons bills, as well as to act as a court of appeal as a last resort. “I think the House of Lords is indefensible,” Starmer told the BBC.
“We want to replace it with a popularly voted camera, so it has a really strong mission. Our initiative proposes new membership with members from UK regions and countries. A smaller, more representative and more democratic chamber,” said Starm, who made it clear that the details would have to be decided by referendum.
According to local analysts, the Labor plan is an attempt to “level out” the country by addressing regional disparities. “People across the country are crying out for a new approach,” reads one of the points of the plan, titled “The New United Kingdom.” The report, written by Brown, also contemplates giving local communities new powers in the areas of transportation, planning and culture.
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