Sadiq Khan gains a gong

Just when you thought you couldn’t dislike Sir Keir Starmer any more, he has gone and awarded Sir Sadiq Khan a peerage. The London Mayor is among 26 new members of the House of Lords announced by No. 10 as the Prime Minister prepares to leave the building.

The move paves the way for Sir Sadiq to – deep breaths – join Andy Burnham’s cabinet, although his team insists he remains focused on serving out the remainder of his mayoral term. Other Labour gongs have been bestowed on the broadcaster and former ‘BBC Director of Creative Diversity’ June Sarpong and former Unison general secretary Christina McAnea. Former Labour MP Kitty Ussher, who quit as a Treasury minister after The Telegraph revealed she had avoided £17,000 in Capital Gains Tax by temporarily changing her main residence, was also rewarded.

The Tories were permitted to nominate three new peers, including the former army chief General Sir Patrick Sanders and David Ross, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse. There will also be five new Liberal Democrat peers, while Reform was awarded precisely none.

The full list of nominations can be read below:

Nominated by the Leader of the Labour Party

1. Alison Garnham – Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group
2. Alison Lowe OBE – Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in West Yorkshire
3. Barbara Mills KC – Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales in 2025, family law barrister and Joint Head of Chambers at 4PB
4. Cathy Ashley OBE – Chief Executive of Family Rights Group and former Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
5. Christina McAnea – Former General Secretary of UNISON
6. June Sarpong OBE – Broadcaster, charity campaigner and social equity advocate
7. The Rt Hon Ken Macintosh DL – Former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
8. Kitty Ussher – Economist, former MP for Burnley and former Economic Secretary to the Treasury
9. Marcus Davey CBE – Former Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Roundhouse
10. Martin McTague OBE – National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses
11. Nick Stace OBE – Chief Global Impact Officer at Howden Group
12. Parvais Jabbar MBE – Human-rights expert and co-founder and Co-Executive Director of The Death Penalty Project
13. Roberto Neri – Chief Executive of The Ivors Academy and Director of UK Music
14. The Rt Hon Sir Sadiq Khan – Mayor of London and former MP for Tooting
15. Saul Lehrfreund MBE – Human-rights expert and co-founder and Co-Executive Director of The Death Penalty Project
16. Tim J Smith CBE – Former Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency

Nominated by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats

1. Dave McCobb – Liberal Democrat Director of Field Campaigns and former Hull city councillor
2. Hannah Kitching – Chair of the Yorkshire Liberal Democrats, Mayor of Penistone and former NHS physiotherapist and Barnsley councillor
3. Julia Aglionby – Executive Director of the Foundation for Common Land, agricultural valuer and former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate
4. Mark Petterson – Director of Warwick Energy Limited, offshore-wind pioneer and long-standing Liberal Democrat adviser
5. Dr Tim Leunig – Chief Economist at Nesta, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and former senior civil servant and economic adviser

Nominated by the Leader of the Conservative Party

1. David Ross – Entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, sponsor and Chair of the David Ross Education Trust, founder of the Nevill Holt Festival and former Chair of the National Portrait Gallery
2. General Sir Patrick Sanders KCB CBE DSO – Former Chief of the General Staff of the British Army
3. Professor Swaran Singh – Professor of Social and Community Psychiatry at the University of Warwick, Consultant Psychiatrist at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust and former Equality and Human Rights Commissioner

Crossbench peerages

1. The Rt Hon Sir Brian Leveson – Investigatory Powers Commissioner, former President of the Queen’s Bench Division and Lord Justice of Appeal, former Chair of the Sentencing Council and Chair of the Leveson Inquiry
2. Sir Chris Wormald KCB – Former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service