Alarm was sounded by the former Labor prime minister over a proposal drawn up by a political lobby group for Boris Johnson to appoint up to 50 new Tories to table controversial legislation following a string of embarrassing defeats by peers. Brown said the leaked document from the CT Group – run by Lynton Crosby, a key Johnson adviser – “legitimizes simple bribery” by recommending loyal voters be rewarded with special envoy seats, honors and meals at Chequers. Nicknamed ‘Operation Homer’, the plan also said the new peers would have to give a written commitment to support the government in key votes on controversial legislation, possibly including the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill which would unilaterally override the deal for Brexit. Under the guise of upgrading the Lords by choosing peers from under-represented parts of the UK, the paper admitted it was the “perfect excuse” to ensure a number of loyal lawmakers would be gentrified. Writing in the Guardian, Brown said the proposal “makes no bones about the defense prime minister’s aim to pack the House of Lords” which would see him “override every convention and standard of decency in a bid to secure political candidates who will vote for the Tory government.” He added that the paper’s claim that the media could easily be blindsided by appointing a few controversial figures or celebrities to avoid criticism of the huge number of “cronies” appointed would amount to “scissors”. “The solution is to reform the Lords, not strengthen their unrepresentativeness,” Brown said, calling on Starmer to take up the mantle of trying to abolish the unelected upper house in parliament. Although Starmer made it one of his 10 promises during the 2020 leadership campaign, it is one of many he has been accused of backtracking on. Asked about his pledge to “abolish the House of Lords” and “replace it with an elected chamber of regions and nations” last November, Starmer did not repeat it but pledged to “change”. Brown said the current system of appointments “calls into question the unfettered support of the prime minister who alone can recommend appointments to the Queen”. Both he and Tony Blair rejected a list of resignation prices, which Brown said “undermined the reputation of some former prime ministers”. “Johnson’s latest attempt to manipulate the Lords system is the culmination of years of constitutional vandalism,” Brown argued, pointing to the “shameless” appointment of Conservative party donors and eight former party treasurers. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Although defeated in 2008 when he tried to push through Lords reform, Brown said it was “time to get clear about who really wants change and who doesn’t”. “Abolishing the current House of Lords was one of 10 pledges Keir Starmer made when he took over as Labor leader,” he wrote. “Now Boris Johnson and Lyndon Crosby have handed him the strongest possible case for overdue reform.” Starmer has faced similar pressure from Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labor leader, who said the Lords in their current form “have no place in 21st century politics”. A CT Group spokesman said: “The document you refer to was simply an early working copy of a discussion paper prepared for a think tank. It wasn’t circulated outside of a small group of people, and it wasn’t prepared for any audience beyond that small group of people, to help the conversation. “Even if this is just a working draft of a discussion paper, it seems incongruous that they would be opposed to making the House of Lords more representative of the people of the United Kingdom with the North and Wales under-represented, as you state, or that those who receive peers they do so with full knowledge and acceptance that they will be fully and actively committed to their democratic role and have no conflicts that would prevent them from doing so.” A spokesman for both Starmer and the Conservative party was contacted for comment.
