Eight new Labour peers announced

Eight new Labour peers have been announced today, in the latest batch of dissolution peerages. The list includes Tessa Jowell, who is currently in the running to become Labour’s candidate for London Mayor, and former Chancellor Alistair Darling. The full list is:

• Rt Hon David Blunkett – former MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough and former Cabinet Minister
• Rt Hon Alistair Darling – former MP for Edinburgh South West and former Cabinet Minister
• Rt Hon Peter Hain – former MP for Neath and former Cabinet Minister
• Rt Hon Tessa Jowell DBE – former MP for Dulwich and West Norwood and former Cabinet Minister
• Spencer Livermore – senior Campaign Strategist for the Labour Party
• Paul Murphy – former MP for Torfaen and former Cabinet Minister
• Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo DBE – former MP for Bristol South and former Minister
• Dave Watts – former MP for St Helens North and former Chair of Parliamentary Labour Party

All seven of the former MPs ennobled stood down in May this year. Blunkett, Darling, Murphy and Primarolo all entered the House of Commons in 1987, while Hain was elected in a by-election in 1991, Jowell in the General Election a year later, and Watts in the 1997 landslide. Livermore worked as a senior strategist for Labour throughout the party’s time in Government, including as Director of Strategy to Gordon Brown in Number 10. He then worked as Campaign Director for the 2015 Election.