With YouGov’s new MRP poll predicting that Reform will be the largest party at the next general election, one question remains largely unexplored – what would Nigel Farage’s mob do about the House of Lords?
With the two biggest parties exchanging power over the last few decades, each incoming Conservative or Labour government has been forced to top up the second chamber with friendly life peers in order to ensure their legislation passes smoothly. But that’s going to be a problem for Reform, which currently doesn’t have a single seat in the Lords.
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There are currently 834 Lords – the only larger second chamber is China’s National People’s Congress – so were Reform to want a pretty much guaranteed pathway for its laws it would need to create a minimum 835 life peers. These would have to pass vetting by the Lords Appointments Commission, which rejects, on average, 10% of those nominated (and 50% of those put forward by one Boris Johnson in 2023).
“Vetting more than 800 appointees will take an entire parliament, if not longer,” a member of the red benches tells Rats in a Sack.
