Nigel Farage has called for the right to nominate Reform UK supporters to the House of Lords, claiming this would address a “democratic disparity”.
The demand was dismissed by the defence secretary, John Healey, who said parliament would not benefit from “more Putin apologists”.
In a letter to Keir Starmer, the Reform leader said it was unfair that other smaller parties, including the Greens, had peers in the upper chamber but his party did not, despite attracting more votes in the general election last year.
In what Farage described as a “modest request”, he said it was time Reform was represented in the House of Lords. “Reform UK wishes to appoint life peers to the upper house at the earliest possible opportunity,” he said.
Political appointments to the Lords are made at the discretion of the prime minister, who is under no constitutional obligation to elevate opposition figures to the Lords. Under political convention, however, No 10 invites opposition leaders to nominate candidates for peerages.
Downing Street has yet to respond to Farage’s demand, but speaking on LBC, Healey said Farage wanted to fill the Lords with “his cronies”. He also pointed out that Farage had previously called for the abolition of the Lords.
Healey said: “I’m not sure that parliament’s going to benefit from more Putin apologists like Nigel Farage, to be honest.”
Asked whether that accusation was “a bit strong”, Healey replied: “Look at what he’s said about Russia, look at what he’s said about Putin in the past.”
Farage’s letter, first reported in the Times, said: “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.”
Farage’s demand has renewed calls to replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber – something Starmer promised when he was elected Labour leader in 2020.
Farage wrote: “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.”
Natalie Bennett, a former Green party leader who was made a life peer in 2019, tweeted: “Sir Keir could respond by going for a fully elected upper house, as @TheGreenParty long calling for.”
Labour’s manifesto promised “immediate reforms” of the Lords in advance of a longer-term ambition to replace the Lords with an alternative second chamber. So far, the government has only legislated to abolish hereditary peers.
Starmer has backed away from a Labour commission led by Gordon Brown to replace the Lords with an elected assembly of the nations and regions.
