Sir Michael Barber, who headed up the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in the early 2000s, is among 34 nominees set to join the House of Lords.
Barber, who is also an adviser to the current PM, Keir Starmer, on effective delivery has been nominated by Labour Party leader for a life peerage.
Initially a special adviser in the education department, Barber became a civil servant and then moved to No.10 to create PMDU. His work leading the PMDU was recently chronicled in a book which explores the “human machinery of government” at the heart of New Labour’s reform agenda.
Former Downing Street director of communications Matthew Doyle, who left the role in March, is also among Labour's nominees, as is Katie Martin, who was chancellor Rachel Reeves’ chief of staff for five years before exiting the role last month.
Other notable Labour nominees include Tracey Paul, who was chief of staff to Dame Louise Casey’s 2016 review of community cohesion and extremism; Andy Roe, who chairs the Building Safety Regulator; and Catherine MacLeod, who was special adviser to Alistair Darling during his 2007-2010 spell as chancellor and is a current non-executive director at the Scotland Office.
Mike Dixon is another former Labour special adviser who has been nominated – albeit by the Liberal Democrats. Dixon has been the Lib Dems’ chief executive since 2019. His time as a Labour spad included spells at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in Gordon Brown’s government. The Lib Dems’ nominees also include Sarah Teather, a former minister at the Department for Education.
Of the 34 nominees on whom the King has signified his intention to confer a life peerage – 25 were nominated by the Labour Party, five by the Liberal Democrats, three by the Conservative Party, and one as a crossbench peer.
The Conservative Party’s nominees include former minister Sir John Redwood, who secretary of state for Wales in the early-to-mid 1990s.
Some of the nominees, including the sole crossbench pick, Charles Kinnoull, are hereditary peers who are being converted to life peers.
Here are all the nominees
Nominations from the leader of the Labour Party:
- Andy Roe – chair of the national Building Safety Regulator and former London fire commissioner
- Dame Ann Limb – former further education college principal and former chair, The Scouts. Pro chancellor, University of Surrey, and chair of City & Guilds Foundation, Lloyds Bank Foundation, and The King’s Foundation
- Brenda Dacres – Mayor of Lewisham
- Carol Linforth – Lately Labour Party chief of staff – operations
- Catherine MacLeod – Former journalist and political adviser, visiting professor at King’s College London and non-executive director at the Scotland Office
- David Isaac – Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, chair of the University of the Arts London, chair of the Henry Moore Foundation, and a trustee of Cumberland Lodge
- David Pitt-Watson – Responsible investment expert. Co-founder and former chief executive of the Equity Ownership Service and Focus Funds at Federated Hermes
- Farmida Bi – Chair of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, vice-chair of the Disasters Emergency Committee
- Professor Geeta Nargund – Founder and former medical director of Create Fertility. Founder and trustee of Health Equality Foundation
- Katie Martin – Lately, chief of staff to the chancellor of the exchequer
- Joe Docherty – Chair of Northern Powergrid Foundation and trustee, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, former chair of council, Durham University
- Len Duvall – Chair of the London Assembly and leader of the London Assembly Labour Group
- Matthew Doyle – Former director of communications to the prime minister and for the Labour Party
- Sir Michael Barber – Chancellor, University of Exeter and adviser to the prime minister on effective delivery
- Neena Gill – Former member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands
- Nick Forbes – Chair, Breaking Down Barriers Commission and former Labour leader, Newcastle City Council
- Peter Babudu – Executive director of Impact on Urban Health, former councillor in Southwark
- Peter John – Former Southwark leader and former chair of London Councils
- Richard Walker – founder and chairman, Bywater and executive chairman, Iceland Foods
- Russell Hobby – CEO, The Kemnal Academies Trust, former CEO, Teach First and former general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers
- Cllr Dr Sara Hyde – Fabian Society chair and Islington council’s executive member for health and social care
- Cllr Shama Tatler – Brent councillor and vice-chair of the London Labour Regional Executive, patron of the Labour Housing Group and head of the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association
- Dr Sophy Antrobus – Senior research fellow and co-director of the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King’s College London
- Tracey Paul – Chief communications officer at Pool Reinsurance and former policy advisor
- Uday Nagaraju– Technology consultant, politician and founder of AI Policy Labs
Nominations from the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party:
- Mike Dixon – chief executive of the Liberal Democrats. Former charity leader and government policy adviser
- Dominic Hubbard (Lord Addington) – Liberal Democrat spokesperson for disabilities in the House of Lords and honorary president of the British Dyslexia Association
- Rhiannon Leaman – chief of staff to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats
- John Russell (Earl Russell) – Liberal Democrat spokesperson for energy and climate change in the House of Lords
- Sarah Teather – charity leader, former MP for Brent East and Brent Central and former minister of state at the Department for Education
Nominations from the leader of the Conservative Party:
- Sharron Davies – campaigner for women’s rights and Olympic swimming silver medallist for Great Britain
- Simon Heffer – professor of modern British history at the University of Buckingham and a historian, journalist, author and political commentator
- Sir John Redwood – Former cabinet minister and MP for Wokingham
Nominations for crossbench peerages:
- Charles Kinnoull (The Earl of Kinnoull) – convenor of the crossbench peers, deputy speaker of the House of Lords, former chair of the House of Lords European Union Committee