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Keir Starmer is putting the finishing touches to a list of dozens of new peerages aimed at strengthening Labour’s hand in the Lords, with Rachel Reeves’s outgoing chief of staff expected to be among them.
The prime minister is planning to publish his list before Christmas, with a number of other former senior advisers, Labour party staff and former union leaders expected to be on it, the Guardian has been told by multiple sources briefed on the plans.
About 25 new peers are expected to be created, joining the 30 new members of the House of Lords who were on Starmer’s list last December, including the short-lived former Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray.
The Conservatives are also expected to appoint a handful of new peers. Reform UK is not expected to have any, despite a request from Nigel Farage. Farage wrote to the prime minister in August saying he wanted to appoint peers “at the earliest possible opportunity” but a Reform source said he had received no response.
Katie Martin, who was Reeves’s chief of staff for almost five years, is expected to be made Labour peer despite a chaotic run-up to the budget, two sources with knowledge of the list said.
Described by Reeves as her “most trusted adviser”, she has already taken on a new role in the Treasury focused on strengthening the government’s frayed ties with business, but could also made a minister in the Lords.
A former Downing Street director of communications – Matthew Doyle – is also understood to have been offered a peerage, with one source saying he was a “dead cert”. It is unclear whether he has accepted it. Neither Doyle nor Martin responded to requests for comment.
Outgoing union leaders are also likely to be on the list, including former Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis, who called for “a degree of silence” from other union bosses who had criticised Keir Starmer.
The veteran Labour aide Carol Linforth, who ran the party’s annual conference and removed Keir Starmer’s jacket after he was glitter-bombed during his speech two years ago, has also been tipped.
The appointments aim to continue Labour’s efforts to rebalance the Lords in its favour and prevent the opposition from slowing down the passing of legislation – as it has done on renters’ rights and abolishing hereditary peers.
Most recently Labour figures have criticised Conservative, Liberal Democrat and cross-bench peers for their opposition to the employment rights bill. Last week, ministers abandoned a plan to offer workers protection against unfair dismissal from their first day in the job in an attempt to get the legislation through before Christmas.
Meanwhile, proponents of the assisted dying bill have accused seven members of the Lords of trying to scupper it by tabling nearly 1,000 amendments in the upper chamber. The bill’s sponsors fear the bill will get filibustered if peers push many amendments to a vote.
The Tories currently have 283 peers, compared with Labour’s 210. Even once the Conservatives’ 44 hereditary peers are gone, they would still have about 30 more members of the Lords than the government, sources said.
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No 10 aims to appoint enough new Labour peers over the course of this parliament to rebalance the numbers, they added.
Angela Smith, the leader of the Lords, is due to kick off the next phase of reform of the upper house in the new year, including plans to remove peers who do not contribute enough to the chamber and retirement at the end of the parliament they turn 80.
Labour’s manifesto included a pledge to bring in that mandatory age limit and participation requirements meaning that peers need to demonstrate they are playing a working role in the House of Lords.
The manifesto also promised to strengthen the circumstances in which “disgraced” members could be removed, reform the appointments process to ensure the “quality of new appointments” and improve the national and regional balance of the second chamber.
The Guardian understands that the House of Lords appointments commission has not signed off the list or taken any decisions on prospective peers yet.
