Wendy Alexander to enter House of Lords as new peers named

Former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander and ex-No 10 chief-of-staff Sue Gray are amongst the new peers set to join the House of Lords.

The women are amongst the 30 new members nominated by Keir Starmer.

Others include ex-Glasgow East MP Margaret Curran and several other former Labour members of parliament.

The Conservatives have nominated six new peers, including former deputy prime minister Therese Coffey.

The list was published by the prime minister's office today.

Gray's appointment confirms reports from earlier this week and comes on the heels of her refusal of the newly-created government post of envoy for the nations and regions.

She was offered that after exiting the role of Starmer's chief-of-staff, with former spinner Morgan McSweeney named as her successor.

Gray's signing had been seen as a coup for the incoming Labour government and followed her long stint in the civil service, during which time she wrote the partygate report into lockdown gatherings held on the parliamentary estate.

Alexander, whose brother Douglas Alexander is currently the UK's trade policy minister, was an MSP from 1999-2011 and led Scottish Labour for a nine month spell between September 2007 and June 2008.

Ex-shadow Scottish secretary Curran served five years as a member of parliament from 2010 to 2015.

Other ex-Labour MPs to join the Lords include Lyn Brown, Thangam Debbonaire, Julie Elliot and Steve McCabe, who left the Commons at the last election, and Luciana Berger and Phil Wilson, who exited in 2019.

Conservative appointees include Toby Young of The Spectator magazine.

While Labour previously aimed to abolish and replace the Lords, it has since committed to consulting on plans for an alternative second chamber. It also aims to bring in new participation rules and set the retirement age at 80.