Labour vision seeks to abolish House of Lords

LONDON: Britain’s Labour Party unveiled its vision for a ‘new Britain’ that would see an elected House of Lords, a ban on MPs’ second jobs and citizen juries making and enforcing rules for politicians.

The opposition party plans to abolish the country’s unelected legislative chamber and replace it with an elected chamber, if the party is elected. Labour leader Keir Starmer on December 5 promised “the biggest ever transfer of power from (the UK parliament in) Westminster to the British people”, making a case that many voters in 2016 opted to quit the European Union because of a sense of lack of democratic control.

The announcement is part of a larger report of 40 proposals, titled, ‘A New Britain: Renewing Our Democracy and Rebuilding Our Economy’, written by a commission led by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The proposal is not yet Labour policy. It now goes to public consultation, with agreed changes set to be incorporated into the party’s next election manifesto.