It’s just over a week away from polling day. So naturally, slimy Starmer has just enough time to squeeze in another galling U-turn before taking power. The award for ditching any final pretence of a commitment to democracy, goes to the Labour Party, for stitching everything up nicely in the House of Lords.
Specifically, it has admitted its plans to stack the unelected chamber with a bunch of its former MPs, including some who look set to lose their seats at the upcoming election.
Of course, it has everything to do with redressing gender imbalance in the unelected house, and nothing at all to do with rewarding its donors and Labour careerists.
Starmer House of Lords U-turn ahead
The Labour leader’s man of the working people act has been wearing thin. His dad was a toolmaker, but he’s become the willing instrument of the corporate capitalists oppressing the working class. See: party packed with business lobbyists, billionaire backers, and flush with donations from vested capitalist interests.
Now the mask has well and truly slipped. Labour’s ostensible mantra throughout the election has been, if you can’t beat the Tories, become them. And with its latest shitshow, it’s once again doing just that.
On Sunday 23 June, the Guardian carried the news that Labour intends to stack the House of Lords with new peers, within weeks of taking power. Notably, it said that:
The list of planned Labour appointments is closely guarded, but insiders believe there could be about 30 in the first few weeks of a Starmer government. These are likely to come in multiple lists, starting with a dissolution honours list of retiring MPs and then lists of working peers and ministers.
Understandably, social media was abuzz with criticism for Labour’s shameless angling for unelected power. Notably, people were once again appalled by what is yet another blatant, brazen U-turn.
If it seems like only yesterday the Labour leader had promised to abolish this vestige of aristocratic power, that’s because it kind of was:
Starmer in 2020:
Vote for me and I’ll scrap the House of Lords.
Starmer in 2024:
Vote for me and l’ll stuff the House of Lords with a bunch of cronies, just like the Tories do. https://t.co/3xL2kOsyxR
— Frank Owen’s Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) June 24, 2024
It’s quite simple: A lying, crooked charlatan from a party of liars, crooks and charlatans. https://t.co/qjMdmE6VG2 pic.twitter.com/pppkFoyLtJ
— Robert (@ClatchardCraig) June 24, 2024
Although, why break a habit of a lifetime – in fact, far longer than the UK’s average lifespan. We’ve only been waiting for Labour to follow through on this for 114 years:
I’m old enough to remember Keir Starmer promising to abolish the House of Lords: “I will abolish the House of Lords to ‘restore trust in politics'” – November 2022.
I’m not old enough to remember the first time Labour promised that. 114 years ago.https://t.co/QSZUDFWdxj
— Alan Ferrier (@alanferrier) June 23, 2024
I thought @labour were to abolish the house of lords . I guess I won’t hold my breath on that! @labour have been promising to do this since 1910! 👇 pic.twitter.com/wXY25QeaMn
— JCW💙 (@jcw911) June 23, 2024
Labour’s “intersectional aristocracy” in the Starmer House of Lords
People weren’t buying Starmer’s gender balance bollocks. In particular, many couldn’t help but scoff at the barefaced representation ploy:
Plunged 👏 into 👏 poverty 👏 by 👏 women 👏 NOW 👏 https://t.co/T6HTrYOh8J
— Eryk (@peregrine_coast) June 23, 2024
Intersectional aristocracy. https://t.co/HGlCQRnL5u
— The Millennial Snowflake 🇵🇸 (@Teh_Snowflake) June 23, 2024
FINALLY a UK government committed to sorting out the REAL issue faced by women- the gender balance of unearned lifetime peerages. https://t.co/9ZS0oiG65m
— Jenny Constable (@JennyLConstable) June 24, 2024
In other words, a few more rich, likely white women imperialists and capitalists will do wonders for people marginalised by the political establishment. For those at the back: representation is not the same as liberation. Some on X expressed this in light on Starmer’s U-turn on the child benefit cap:
putting more women into the House of Lords (!) while retaining the two-child benefit cap that disproportionately pushes women into poverty… I hate them so much https://t.co/hRGKk1YKCv
— molly smith (@pastachips) June 23, 2024
Because in reality, it’s about balancing the books – that is, shoring up the support of the party’s billionaire backers. Invariably, a Tory tried-and-tested method for this is the unelected chamber of cronies:
This must be the “reform” of the House of Lords they’ve been banging on about for years. Did you, like me, think they meant getting rid of it & replacing it with an elected second chamber? No, what they actually meant was they’d stack it in their favour 🤨 #VoteSNP2SetScotsFree https://t.co/eIMiVBhvWx
— Cllr Andrea Cowan (@AndreaCowanSNP) June 24, 2024
Shoring up its power to pass neoliberal legislation
One person on X suggested it probably has something to do with Labour’s grab for unfettered power:
The watering down to just “Reforming the Lords” turns out to mean “achieve a better gender balance by…appointing a ton of Labour Ladies”.
Guess they saw the Tories regularly defeated in the lords and figured “We better make sure that never happens to us!”. https://t.co/5vkhrKg5XF
— David Genz💚🍉🌹🏳️🌈 (@Dave_Genz) June 23, 2024
In other words, Labour simply can’t entertain the idea of barriers to its corporate capitalist agenda:
It’s okay that we’re going to keep a totally unelected and undemocratic upper house to push through shite neoliberal policies though bcos it’ll be ✨gender balanced✨ https://t.co/nXWHkvZ6fu
— Jack 🇵🇸 (@justjackt3) June 24, 2024
And by barriers, we mean other parties and independent MPs curtailing its majority. Already, the party has been pushing the nonsense line that a vote for anyone but them, will let the Tories back in. Thankfully, people on X have been calling this out for the shameless bullshit it is:
Bollocks.
Labour know they’ll win a landslide come what may.
They’re just worried about the Greens doing well and coming second in a load of seats, making them a force Labour has to compete with for votes.
They want to keep politics on a right-wing terrain. That’s it. https://t.co/mx8rQjNDsc
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 23, 2024
Nonsense and propaganda. Don’t give Keith a supermajority https://t.co/jGsAnRYP7h
— Newsfox (@theNewsfox) June 22, 2024
Take note Starmer’s Labour want it all.
They want a supermajority of MPs who will do as they are told, vote as he demands, not for us. Starmer doesn’t want any opposition & cannot tolerate debate least alone dissent.
This is just spin to make you fear voting for progress https://t.co/yibqsOHARX
— Maria D #ChosePeace (@Maria4CarmsEast) June 23, 2024
One soon-to-be unelected peer has been bleating on her soapbox with this very propaganda:
Labour is claiming that a vote for the Greens in Bristol Central “helps give Rishi Sunak 5 more years”.
This is objectively impossible, as the Greens have a 50pt lead over the Conservatives in Bristol Central. pic.twitter.com/aq4lpDEQnM
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) June 23, 2024
The signs were all there…
Of course, the signs of the duplicitous Labour leader’s betrayal on this pledge have been glaringly obvious for a while now too.
That’s because, for over a year, the Labour leader has been public about the party’s plans to swell its numbers in the chamber. At this point, Starmer was still doggedly claiming this would be a temporary measure, on the road to abolition.
Then, in October 2023, there were media murmurings about Starmer’s team watering down this commitment.
The party’s recent manifesto offered lukewarm platitudes to reform the house. Most notably, it made no mention of abolishing it, as some on X noted at the time:
When Keir Starmer ran for Labour leader, he promised to abolish the House of Lords.
These watered down reforms aren’t enough and this promise is yet another example of Keir Starmer lying to his own party. He will lie to you too. https://t.co/ozPaCbqS8E
— George Aylett (@GeorgeAylett) June 8, 2024
Very disappointing to see no commitment to an elected House of Lords in the Labour manifesto. Just very vague wording about “committed to replacing” and “consulting on proposals”. pic.twitter.com/IIMGQf5Cj8
— Pete Kennedy, Stroud’s Green Candidate (@PeteKennedy) June 13, 2024
It’s almost as if Labour is scared of democracy. Not that you could possibly know this from anything the party has done in the last few months. Not a single thing comes to mind, except for:
- Purging its minority and leftwing candidates and parachuting in its pro-Israel and business-favourable plants.
- A gazillion other U-turns on previous pledges Starmer made during the internal leadership election.
- Numerous candidates dodging hustings, including Labour’s pro-NHS privatisation candidate standing against Corbyn in Islington North:
Hustings being cancelled all over the country because Labour refuse to participate.
If they’re dodging accountability before they’re elected, imagine what they’ll be like with a massive majority. https://t.co/3gNRBz5zKD
— Stella Cast 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (they/she) (@SpillerOfTea) June 17, 2024
So, the Starmer House of Lords U-turn is not really that surprising. A neoliberal rightwing grifter like Starmer was never going to usher in genuine democratic reform. Not when the system is serving his party quite well. At the end of the day, it’s the most obsequiously efficient way for Labour to hand power to its corporate paymasters.
After 4 July, we’re getting Tory cronyism mark two – feat red ties and more corrupt politicians.
Feature image via UK Parliament – YouTube
