Sadiq Khan being awarded a seat in the House of Lords (alongside 25 other political peerages) in one of Keir Starmer’s last acts in office is an insultingly bad decision, which about sums up his disastrous premiership.
Throughout his time as Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has repeatedly chosen coercion over freedom. His instinct has always been to regulate, tax, and penalise rather than encourage competition and innovation or trust people to make their own decisions. His tenure has been marked by nothing but more bureaucracy, more spending, and more state intervention.
Khan’s interventionist planning restrictions worsened London’s housing and affordability crisis, and he presided over a night-time economy that has seen pubs and nightclubs close on his watch.
He brazenly dismissed legitimate concerns over London’s crime epidemic as “lies and hatred”, ignorantly claiming that there was no indication of grooming gangs in London.
And his expansion of the ULEZ surveillance state has subjected millions of motorists to new charges that disproportionately punish small local businesses, lower-income workers, and the millions of commuters who rely on cars for travel.
The Libertarian Party believes that freedom of movement shouldn’t depend on whether politicians approve of your method of travel. Prosperous and thriving communities come from free individuals making voluntary choices, not from bureaucrats attempting to engineer society.
Rewarding Khan’s appalling record with a peerage (in addition to his equally undeserved Knighthood last year) demonstrates just how disconnected Britain’s political class has become. Politicians from all major parties who expand the state’s reach are effectively rewarded with a retirement package by the establishment they helped to grow.
The deeper problem is the honours system itself. The House of Lords is already an unelected and unaccountable institution without filling it with more cronies. If democracy means anything, public office should be a temporary position of service answerable to the public, not an unelected unaccountable lifelong parting gift from lame duck Prime Ministers.
Britain doesn’t need more titled politicians. Power should flow from the people, not from frivolous honours handed out by the political class to its own. The Libertarian alternative is simple: fewer bureaucrats, more accountability – end political peerages!