Keir Starmer risks Corbynite wrath as he hints at ditching vow to abolish the House of Lords – and says MPs should be able to have some second jobs
- Keir Starmer has refused to repeat previous pledge to abolish the House of Lords
- Labour leader would only say that the upper chamber ‘certainly needs to change’
- Seemed to water down Corbyn’s 2019 promise to ban almost all MP second jobs
Keir Starmer risked the wrath of Corbynites today as he hinted at ditching the promise he made during his leadership bid to abolish the House of Lords.
The Labour leader pointedly avoided repeating the commitment, instead saying the upper chamber ‘certainly needs change’.
He also appeared to distance himself from Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 vow to ban MPs from holding second jobs with only very limited exceptions.
The comments came as Sir Keir was grilled on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show after emerging from Covid self-isolation.
Sir Keir was asked about reports that a swathe of former Conservative Party treasurers have been made peers, as well as the PM’s abortive bid to overhaul the standards system after ally Owen Paterson was found to have breached lobbying rules.
He said the claims in the Sunday Times illustrated the need for change in the Lords.
‘Nobody can make the case that we don’t need to change,’ he said.
But pressed repeatedly on whether he still wanted to abolish the Lords, Sir Keir insisted: ‘I’ve said we need to change the House of Lords, I stand by that.’
Former PM Gordon Brown is leading a commission looking at future of the UK and institutions including the Lords.
Keir Starmer pointedly avoided repeating the commitment to abolish the House of Lords, instead saying the upper chamber ‘certainly needs change’
Sir Keir made a clear promise to abolish the House of Lords during the leadership contest
The apparent shift from Sir Keir comes after he edged away from other left-wing elements of his leadership pitch – including taking utilities into public ownership
Under Mr Corbyn in 2019, Labour also promised a tight crackdown on MPs’ outside work.
‘We will stop MPs from taking paid second jobs, with limited exemptions to maintain professional registrations like nursing,’ the manifesto said.
In 2015, when Ed Miliband was in charge, the policy was to restrict ‘directorships and consultancies’.
Sir Keir insisted today that Labour had been ‘saying for many many years’ that consultancies and directorships ‘should go’.
‘We went a step further in 2019 to say no second jobs, with clear exemptions,’ he added.
But he said there was a ‘world of difference’ between cases like that of Mr Paterson and Rosena Allin-Khan, who does shifts as an A&E doctor alongside her Commons duties.
Pressed repeatedly on whether he still wanted to abolish the Lords (file picture), Sir Keir insisted: ‘I’ve said we need to change the House of Lords, I stand by that.’