David Cameron has created 125 new Conservative members of the House of Lords — and is adding to the total headcount of Lords and Ladies at the record rate of 50 a year. So it’s little wonder that aides to Ed Miliband are giving serious thought to whom they would ennoble should they win the 2015 election; they’ll need plenty of lobby fodder to stop the newly swelled ranks of Tory peers blocking legislation.
One of the names that has come up in planning meetings is Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?, the rebranded Consumers’ Association, and former special adviser to Gordon Brown. Westminster is awash with gossip that he is being lined up for a big job.
“Ed wants the business department to be beefed up after 2015 and wants big hitters to support [shadow business secretary] Chuka Umunna,” a Labour insider tells The Londoner. “His team is considering offering Lloyd a peerage so that he can become Minister for Consumers.” But what does this mean for the political positioning of Which?
CEO Peter Vicary-Smith is keen for the organisation to be more bi-partisan in the wake of jibes from the likes of Paul Waugh at PoliticsHome, who recently described the Labour Party as “the parliamentary wing of the Consumers’ Association”. The CEO told the Independent: “We are an independent, apolitical, social enterprise working for all consumers,” rejecting claims of Labour bias. Let’s hope this more neutral direction doesn’t throw Lloyd off his journey to the red benches.
