Keir Starmer political peerage nominations unveiled

Nominations to the House of Lords for the 2020 political peerages have been unveiled today, with Keir Starmer appointing five of the 16 set to take up seats in the upper chamber of the UK parliament.

Those nominated by Starmer include his political secretary and former Darlington MP Jenny Chapman, former Gedling MP Vernon Coaker and Board of Deputies of British Jews chief executive and former Lincoln MP Gillian Merron.

The Labour leader also appointed councillor Judith Blake, Labour leader of Leeds City Council, and former MEP for North West England Wajid Khan in the list published by the government this afternoon.

Coaker, who sat in the Commons as a Labour MP between 1997 and 2019 and held ministerial positions under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, issued a statement on social media following the announcement of his nomination.

He said he was “honoured” to have been picked by the Labour leader, and declared: “I am ready to continue to fight for those Labour values that I believe are more important than ever on a local, national and international level.”

The Prime Minister made seven recommendations, including the former Tory Party co-treasurer and city tycoon Peter Cruddas, despite the House of Lords appointment commission advising Boris Johnson that it could not support the nomination.

The commission is an independent, non-statutory body. The Prime Minister has the right to overrule it and nominate against the advice of the panel but rarely exercises this power – and he has faced fresh accusations of cronyism with the appointment.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “After months of revelations about the cronyism at the heart of this government, it’s somehow appropriate the Prime Minister has chosen to end the year with a peerage to Peter Cruddas, the man who once corruptly offered access to government in exchange for cash.

“Whether it’s the Dominic Cummings saga, wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer cash on contracts that don’t deliver or giving peerages to disgraced donors, it’s never been more clear: there is one rule for the Conservatives and their chums, another for the rest of the country.”

Cruddas resigned from his position as co-treasurer in 2012 after he was found offering political access for cash. Undercover footage emerged of him offering access to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor for up to £250,000.

Cruddas donated £50,000 to Johnson’s leadership campaign, as well as giving more than £3.5m to the Conservative Party and £1.5m to the Vote Leave campaign. He also co-founded the Vote Leave campaign.

Below is the full list of nominations.

Nominations from the leader of the Conservative Party:

• Rt Hon Sir Richard Benyon – former parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and MP for Newbury.
• Peter Cruddas – businessman and philanthropist.
• Dame Jacqueline Foster – formerly deputy leader of the Conservative Party in the European parliament and MEP for North West England.
• Stephanie Fraser – chief executive of Cerebral Palsy Scotland.
• Dean Godson – director of Policy Exchange.
• Daniel Hannan – formerly MEP for South East England.
• Syed Kamall – formerly Leader of the Conservative Party in the European parliament and MEP for London.

Nominations from the leader of the Labour Party:

• Cllr Judith Blake CBE – leader of Leeds City Council.
• Jennifer Chapman – formerly MP for Darlington.
• Vernon Coaker – formerly minister of state for schools and MP for Gedling.
• Wajid Khan – formerly MEP for North West England.
• Gillian Merron – chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, former minister of state for public health and MP for Lincoln.

Nominations for crossbench peerages:

• Sir Terence Etherton PC QC – master of the rolls and head of civil justice.
• Sir Simon McDonald KCMG KCVO – lately permanent under-secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the diplomatic service.
• Sir Andrew Parker KCB – lately director general of MI5, the Security Service.
• The Rt Revd. And Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu – lately Archbishop of York.