Retirement by 85

And other pledges from the Labour manifesto

A retirement age of 85 is not what you might expect to find in a Labour manifesto, even if it applies only to the House of Lords. Peers will have to retire at the end of the parliament in which they reach the age of 80, the manifesto says, and no parliament can last for longer than five years. It follows that a peer who turns 80 on the first day that the Lords sits after a general election might be nearly 85 when that parliament is dissolved.

The last remaining 92 hereditary peers will lose the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords. Fortunately, Labour has planned ahead. Its justice and home affairs spokesperson Fred Ponsonby is not only the 4th Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede but also, as Baron Ponsonby of Roehampton, a life peer.

Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC, leader of the Labour Party

Trimming back the Lords in this way is pretty straightforward. But what about Labour’s commitment, first proposed in 2022 by a commission chaired by Gordon Brown, to replace the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the regions and nations? That’s in the manifesto but it will be the subject of public consultation. Nobody could have expected it to be otherwise.

Standards

Standards are an important part of the Labour manifesto: