Keir Starmer about the House of Lords
The leader of the United Kingdom's opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has said he intends to abolish the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, if he comes to power. He made the announcement on the Sky News TV channel.
According to media reports, the document, titled "The New Britain", drafted with input from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, will contain some 40 recommendations.
"That is one of the recommendations in today's report. We will then consult on those recommendations, test them, and in particular look at the extent to which they can be implemented," said Keir Starmer. Also, Starmer added that he believes there is little to advocate for an unelected House of Parliament with the number of members approaching 800.
As the BBC television channel notes, the opposition party's policy document will also include proposals to devolve new economic powers to English city mayors, local authorities and the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, when asked whether former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn could be readmitted to the party, Keir said: "I don't see circumstances in which he would run at the next election as a Labour MP.
"The concentration of so much power in Westminster slows us down, not just politically when people are increasingly distanced from politics, but also economically," Starmer explained his motivation on air. "Among the reasons why we have failed to grow our economy over the last 12 years is that we have not allowed every part of the UK to play its economic role," the opposition leader added.
According to an opinion poll released last week, support for the ruling Conservative Party has slipped to 22% nationally.
The poll, conducted on 22-23 November by polling firm YouGov, showed that the Tories' gap with the opposition Labour Party had widened to 25 percentage points. The next UK parliamentary election is scheduled for 2024.
