Liz Truss’s ‘rewards for failure’ resignation honours list means new peer created for every day-and-a-half she was in office, Electoral Reform Society finds

Liz Truss’s ‘rewards for failure’ resignation honour’s list shows just how unfit the peerages system is for deciding who sits in the House of Lords, the Electoral Reform Society has said.

The resignation honours list has been released more than a year after her 49-day premiership ended and will add three new peers to the Lords. The latest batch of peerages means that the former prime minister has sent a new person to the Lords for every 1.5 days she was in office [1], according to analysis by the Electoral Reform Society.

This makes Liz Truss by far the most prolific ennobler for time in office compared to other recent former prime ministers, with Boris Johnson elevating a new peer for every 16 days he was in office, Theresa May for every 25 days and Gordon Brown for every 20 [2].

Liz Truss’s resignation list means that yet more peers are being added to the already bloated House of Lords, which has around 800 members, and is another blow for the recommendations of 2017 ‘Burns report’ [3], which urged a ‘two out, one in’ approach to new peers in an attempt to reduce the size of the chamber.
Willie Sullivan, Senior Director for Campaigns at the Electoral Reform Society, said:

“It will feel like an insult to many to see Liz Truss handing out peerages to friends and supporters after her disastrously short stint as prime minister. It looks like the political class dishing out rewards for failure at a time when many people are still suffering the effects from her turbulent premiership.

“Liz Truss’s resignation honours list also adds yet more peers to the House of Lords, which already has around 800 members making it the second largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.

“This all highlights just how rotten and out of control the current peerages system is and why it needs urgent reform to prevent it causing any more damage to the public’s trust in politics. It is clear this is not a fit nor proper way to choose who sits in our Parliament.

“This is why we need to replace the bloated and unelected Lords with a smaller elected chamber where the people of this country, not former prime ministers, choose who sits in Parliament making the laws we all live under.”