A KEY advisor to Boris Johnson has suggested packing the House of Lords with Tory loyalists to avoid a repeat of the numerous defeats Johnson suffered there during his brief time as prime minister, reports say.
A document seen by ITV said that if there were around 40 more Conservatives in the upper house Johnson would have avoided around half of the defeats he suffered there.
The report comes from Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor. Peston said that Lynton Crosby's CT Group – which ran Johnson’s successful 2008 and 2012 London mayoral bids – had created “project Homer”.
Confidential documents seen by ITV say that, to stave off criticism, the new Tory lords should come from under-represented areas such as the north of England.
It also argues that controversial figures like the Daily Mail’s Paul Dacre should be handed peerages so that the media focuses on one person instead of the bigger picture.
As it stands, the Conservatives are already the largest group in the Lords with 257 peers, 47 of whom have hereditary seats.
There are 186 crossbenchers, 35 of whom are hereditary, and 166 Labour lords, just four of whom are hereditary. The LibDems have 83 lords, three of whom are hereditary.
A No 10 spokesperson told Peston: “This is not a government document and does not represent government policy. Unsolicited advice is often received – and disregarded.”
A spokesperson for CT said the document was “simply an early working copy of a discussion paper prepared for a think tank”.
