Labour may have abolished the hereditary peers, but that hasn’t stopped the party hypocritically swelling the ranks of the House of Lords with ‘nepo-barons’ descended from Left-leaning life peers and MPs. Toby has more in the Telegraph.
In the packed Lords’ Chamber on Wednesday, as the Parliamentary session was brought to an end, some of the beneficiaries of inherited privilege were breathing a sigh of relief. I don’t mean the handful of hereditaries who have avoided the chop by being awarded life peerages. I mean Labour’s swelling ranks of nepo barons – life peers descended from other life peers.
I discovered how numerous they are when I made the mistake of claiming to be the first when I was elevated to the peerage last year. (My father was ennobled by James Callaghan.) For weeks afterwards, members would stop me in the corridors to tell me that I was far from the only one.
If we start with the descendants of Labour leaders, there are Baroness Jay of Paddington, daughter of Lord Callaghan of Cardiff; Baroness Smith of Cluny, daughter of Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (widow of John Smith); and Lord Attlee, grandson of Earl Attlee, the Prime Minister from 1945-1950.
Admittedly, that last gentleman is a Tory and a hereditary peer (life peerages in their modern widespread form were still two years off when Clement was ennobled in 1956), but most of these Labour ‘aristocrats’ feel no need to renounce their egalitarian principles when they take up their titles. Tony Benn renounced his, of course, but his eldest son sits in the Lords as Viscount Stansgate. He is rumoured to be one of the lucky hereditaries to have been given a life peerage.
Other nepo peers on the Labour benches include Baron Ponsonby of Roehampton, son of Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede; Baroness Morris of Yardley, niece of Baron Morris of Manchester; Baron Sainsbury of Turville (now retired), son of Baron Sainsbury of Drury Lane; and – not to be forgotten – the prematurely retired Baron Mandelson of Foy, grandson of Baron Morrison of Lambeth.
There is even one mother-and-son combo sitting side by side: Baroness Pitkeathley and Baron Pitkeathley of Camden Town.
If we extend the definition of nepo barons to include the sons and daughters of ex-Labour MPs who were not given life peerages – not all of them have been ennobled, I was surprised to learn – the list includes Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top, Baron Cryer of Leyton, and Baroness Mallalieu of Studdridge. The House of Commons is chock full of scions of the Labour establishment, including Stephen Kinnock, Hilary Benn, Hamish Falconer, Lisa Nandy and Richard Burgon.
This makes Labour’s condemnation of the hereditary principle as “outdated and indefensible” somewhat ironic. Its fulminating about seats in Parliament not being “reserved for individuals who were born into certain families” downright hypocritical.
But then, no one in the Lords ever took these high-minded justifications seriously. Everyone knows the real reason the Government has passed the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act is to reduce the number of Tory peers. Forty-five of the outgoing hereditaries take the Conservative whip compared to just four on the Government benches. The rest are made up of Lib Dems (four), non-affiliated (four) and crossbenchers (30). If Sir Keir Starmer were genuinely opposed to inherited privilege, as many Labour members would be heading for the exit as Conservatives.
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Isn’t there something incongruous about a socialist with an aristocratic title? Why do we still endure this House of Appointees?
Thank you for reminding me to pay my respects to Baron Neil Gordon Kinnock, the epitome of socialist aristos.
Dur Sturmer being a hypocrite? Surely not?
It has to be granted that socialists are just very good at taking over institutions.
They’re patient and play the long game when nobody else realises there’s a game being played. Our current predicament is the result of an orchestrated campaign of capture that goes back at least 60 years. Could you be that patient? I certainly couldn’t. But that’s how committed to their ideology these people are – they don’t need to see the results of their sacrifice as long as they know, at some point in the future, there will be results. These are fanatics in the same mould as the most deeply religious fanatics; blind faith is what drives them.
I’m not sure that’s exactly what it is. I’ll agree with you that it looks like the result of a long game. But I think the real cause is that it happens naturally for them. The whole point of collectivism is to create rules and institutions to promote and enforce them. Banding together to impose things on others is their entire raison d’être.
For those of us who are more inclined to individualism, to live and let live, to get on with our lives and let other get on with theirs as long as they don’t bother us, creating rules and institutions of enforcement are antithetical to our way of being. It’s not that we see no value in it, or that we don’t participate in it if necessary, but it’s an effort, it’s something that we are more inclined to resist than to be attracted to, something that we do if really have to and there is no other way.
I think that’s why they are always ahead of the game. They love it, and we don’t.
I’ve been strongly encouraging people to read the Toronto Protocols and note the dates. You may well change your mind.
So you’re saying Lefties/Labour are tribal, clanish, like the more recently arrived lot?
Dunno about that. Just drawn to the endeavour of forcing others to do as they say, for which institutions are very useful
Ellie Sandover, Sir Keir Starmer’s niece, is standing in the local elections in Croydon, one of the safest wards in London. It is hard to imagine there was not intense competitioin for a safe council seat – there will be so few of them next week.
No one believes Ms Sandover was appointed on merit. That is a shame if she really does have ability.
The Sandover woman will be undertaking her grifting “apprenticeship ” via this local council prior to moving on to a “safe” Liebour seat at the next GE.
She is apparently rarely seen in the borough, despite being on the payroll of the local MP, a government minister, with some reports she has spent a lot of the campaign away on holiday. Two (female, coloured) long-standing councillors were deselected to free up space for her, despite one of them being a hardworking shadow cabinet member on the council. You’ve got to love a nepo-baby.