Labour Lords reform plan not ready, says Lord Mandelson

Lord Mandelson was a cabinet minster under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and was a key figure in New Labour

Lord Mandelson has opposed a Labour blueprint for Lords reform.

Plans drawn up by former PM Gordon Brown suggest replacing the House of Lords with an elected Assembly of the Nations and Regions.

But the Labour peer said the proposal has "barely been put in the oven yet, let alone [been] fully baked".

Labour has signalled it will significantly water down plans for reform, possibly limiting them to phasing out hereditary peers.

Back in December 2022, party leader Sir Keir Starmer launched Mr Brown's report, A New Britain, and suggested it could be implemented within the first five years of a Labour government.

Labelling the current Westminster system "undemocratic" and "indefensible", Sir Keir set out his predecessor's plans, including abolishing the House of Lords alongside sweeping constitutional change.

One Labour source said "everything in our manifesto we will seek to deliver in a parliamentary term".

But by June last year, the pledge was watered down, with fresh plans for "interim reforms" and reports Labour could appoint up to 100 more peers in order to fast-track policy should the party win the upcoming general election.

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Now Lord Mandelson, who is an unofficial advisor to Sir Keir, has signalled his opposition to the blueprint set out by Mr Brown in an interview with the Lord Speaker, Lord McFall.

He said: "What I see is a sort of multi-layered cake with an assortment of very diverse ingredients in it with a thin layer of icing at the top, which is called a new second chamber of the regions and nations, which has barely been put in the oven yet, let alone fully baked."

Lord Mandelson said the House of Lords' main function was to scrutinise and revise policy but his party seems to no longer want a second chamber having that role.

Instead, he said, Mr Brown's plan was "a whole new concept of self-government" where the purpose of the second chamber would not be to scrutinise but "to give a voice for those self-governing nations".

"I think that we've got to have a far deeper conversation and analysis about this than has taken place to date," he said.

"We haven't had a substantive discussion about it in our own party, let alone a debate in the country.

"And yet we're told six months away from a general election, all this is going to happen, abracadabra, in the first term of a Labour government."

Lord Mandelson said he was still keen to see smaller reforms within the House of Lords, including on the number of peers and hereditary peers.

"Let's have that serious discussion about how the House of Lords has got to be changed," he said. "But that's quite separate from a completely different set of proposals to do away with the whole thing."

At the time of the report launch, a government source said the measures "risk undermining the union of the United Kingdom". "A second chamber of politicians with their own elected mandates would invariably clash with the House of Commons and other devolved chambers," the source said, warning of potential legislative gridlock.