Britain’s Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has pledged to scrap Parliament’s unelected and “indefensible” upper house, as he seeks power in the next election.
Starmer promised on Monday “the biggest ever transfer of power from [the UK parliament in] Westminster to the British people.”
“I think the House of Lords is indefensible. Anybody who looks at the House of Lords would struggle to say that it should be kept,” Starmer told BBC television.
“So we want to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber that has a really strong mission,” he added.
Starmer also accused the conservative government of “failure of economic growth over the past 12 years.”
He said he hoped to push through the eventual reforms within the first five years of a Labour government, possibly including the redeployment of 50,000 civil service jobs out of London.
Starmer also vowed to keep Britain out of the European Union’s single market.
The party’s blueprint for reform, drafted by former PM Gordon Brown, envisions new devolution to the UK’s regions and countries including Scotland, where the nationalist government is pressing for a new referendum on independence.
Brown proposed a new assembly comprising members drawn from the UK’s regions and countries – a “smaller, more representative and democratic” chamber.
The Labour Party, which has been out of power since 2010, is seeking to cement its place as a government-in-waiting with a general election due in due by January 2025.
The opposition party is streaking far ahead of the governing Conservatives in opinion polls.