Boris Johnson unveils plan to hand peerages to Brexiteers in hopes of restoring ‘balance’ in Remain-packed House of Lords
BORIS Johnson is preparing to hand a flurry of peerages to Brexiteers to “restore the balance” in the Remain-packed House of Lords.
Senior sources yesterday claimed that Leave-voting luminaries and “unsung heroes who had been looked over in the past” would be given the honour.
An initial list of six names has already been drawn up. And senior sources told The Sun that more would follow – though AFTER Britain has left the EU on October 31 – when Mr Johnson expects bitter battles over his plans for the nation.
It comes amid growing speculation that two of Theresa May’s closest aides, Robbie Gibb and Gavin Barwell, will both be enobled in her imminent resignation honours list.
Speculation last night mounted that Mr Johnson could hand a peerage to Gerard Lyons, his former economic advisor in London. But insiders ruled out Brexit party chief Nigel Farage.
The move will be seen as a dramatic escalation of Boris Johnson’s war of words with anti-Brexit rebels – ahead of a meeting of ‘Remain’ leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson today (Tues).
Anti-Brexit Lords have torn up convention to repeatedly hijack Government legislation on leaving the EU since 2016.
'RESTORE THE BALANCE'
Peers last year inflicted 15 defeats on the Government’s flagship Brexit legislation, the EU Withdrawal Bill.
In one debate, Tory peer Lord Ridley branded the Lords a ‘gilded, crimson echo chamber of Remain’.
In 2016, arch Eurosceptic and now Commons leader Jacob Rees Mogg urged Theresa May to create 1,000 new peers to get Brexit through.
While the Tories have a narrow majority in the Commons, the party is vastly outnumbered by opposition parties in the Lords.
There are 238 Conservative Lords, compared with 178 Labour and 95 Lib Dems peers. But there are also 183 cross-benchers.
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The Lib Dems has 12 per cent of seats in the Lords even though it has just two per cent of MPs in the Commons.
Under Westminster convention, Prime Ministers can select a number of aides or politicians for peerages each year. Opposition parties then have the chance to make a handful of their own appointments.
Last Spring, Theresa May risked uproar by appointing a number of ex-Tory MPs to the Lords – a move seen as a bid to bolster her support in the upper House.
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