Keir Starmer will join Brown on Monday for the launch of the former prime minister’s Commission on the Future of the UK, which is making recommendations on Lords reform, devolution and the future of the union. The party said its central work would include a massive devolution of power from Westminster to the people and their local areas, with Starmer saying “the center has not delivered”. Brown recommends cultivating “300 emerging new economy groups” and eliminating “the bias of Westminster and Whitehall and giving everyone a fair share of our future prosperity”. Labor said one of Brown’s recommendations would be to abolish the Lords, as well as new rules to “end the undue influence of wealth and foreign money and prevent MPs from working part-time”. Brown also recommends “stronger enforcement, with the public directly represented on a new integrity commission” for politicians and public life. All 40 of Brown’s recommendations will now be subject to consultation, with the conclusions of this further process feeding into Labour’s manifesto. Abolishing the House of Lords would shake up a centuries-old constitutional model and is likely to face resistance from existing peers. Lord McFaul, the Lord Speaker and former Labor MP, is due to give a speech on Wednesday backing the consent-based Lords reform. In comments released ahead of the Brown report, Starmer made no mention of the House of Lords but focused on how Labor would deliver “real economic empowerment for our devolved government, mayors and local authorities”. This will include new powers for transport and infrastructure, development and housing, such as compulsory purchase orders on empty sites, and measures to stimulate growth. “We have an unbalanced economy that makes little use of the talents of too few people in too few places,” he will say on Monday. “We will have higher standards in public life, a wider spread of power and opportunity, and better economic growth that benefits everyone, wherever they are. By setting our sights higher, wider, better, we can build a better future together.” Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said on Sunday that Labor will ensure there is an elected second parliament and the plan is to do so in the first term. “We will consult before the manifesto on how to do this,” he added. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Starmer said there were “questions of implementation”, telling the newspaper: “The answer is that this is the part of the debate that comes after Monday, because that is testing the proposals, refining them and then crucial to answer, think about when and how this is applied. “What will require legislation, what will not require legislation, if we want to take each of the steps. The purpose of this is to create a manifesto that says, “This is the overall project, these are the pieces we plan to do in five years, this is the delivery you can expect to see.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Brown is believed to be more vocal about scrapping the Lords than some other senior party figures, who fear a lengthy public debate on constitutional reform could overshadow more important priorities in a first Labor government. The former prime minister gave a separate briefing for Scotland on Sunday, in which he called for a new UK council chaired by the prime minister, which would also meet as a council of nations and regions to consider common issues. “We will of course abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a reformed second chamber which will have enhanced Scottish representation and have a constitutional role to protect the devolution arrangement,” he said. In an early draft of the report leaked to the Guardian in September, Brown proposed reforming the House of Lords as an assembly of regions and nations, with powers to uphold the constitution and the power to refer the government to the high court. . In his presentation, Brown insisted that there is support for radical change from voters across the UK, but in Scotland “middle Scotland” – the Brown group previously identified as those who feel more Scottish but have not erased the British dimension from the their lives – believe by 50% to 10% that a serious plan to change Britain could be more attractive than independence. His report also recommends the devolution of the public service and services from London to Scotland and an enhanced role for Scotland internationally, with new powers for the Scottish Government to enter into international agreements and bodies such as Erasmus, Unesco and the Nordic Council .
This article has been amended since its original publication to correct the claim that Lord McFaul was previously a Conservative MP. He was, in fact, a Labor MP from 1987 to 2010.
