Defence secretary John Healey has perfectly dismissed calls from Nigel Farage for Keir Starmer to appoint Reform peers to the House of Lords.
In a letter to the prime minister this week, Farage called for the right to nominate Reform UK supporters to the House of Lords, arguing this would address a “democratic disparity.”
The Clacton MP – who has previously called for the House of Lords to be abolished – claimed it was unfair that parties such as the Greens had peers in the upper chamber whilst Reform did not.
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He wrote: “My party received over 4.1m votes at the general election in July 2024. We have since won a large number of seats in local government, led in the national opinion polls for many months and won the only byelection of this parliament.
“While Reform UK believes in a reformed House of Lords, the time has come to address the democratic disparity that exists in the upper house.”
His letter added: “The Greens, DUP, Plaid Cymru, and UUP have 13 peers between them but Reform UK has none. Furthermore, the Liberal Democrats now have 76 peers but received 600,000 fewer votes than Reform UK in July last year.
“None of this holds water any longer, given the seismic shifts that have taken place in British politics.”
Whilst Downing Street has not yet responded to Farage’s calls, Defence Secretary John Healey left no doubt about where he stood on the matter.
Speaking on LBC, the Labour minister said the Reform leader wanted to fill the Lords with “his cronies,” adding that parliament is not “going to benefit from more Putin apologists like Nigel Farage.”
Asked whether that accusation was “quite strong”, Healey replied: “Look at what he’s said about Russia, look at what he’s said about Putin in the past.”