Do our new Labour rulers ever pause to think about how something they say or do might look to others? Do they consider, even for a nanosecond, how their behaviour in office or in private stacks up with the public positions they take, or how all this might look to ordinary voters outside the confines of Westminster? The whiff of brazen political hypocrisy – one rule for us and another for everyone else – hangs like a cloud over the new government. It goes some way towards explaining why this summer’s donor scandals, involving free clothes, spectacles and tickets to Taylor Swift concerts, have resonated so strongly with the public.
Ellie Reeves is just one of many high-profile examples of Labour’s very own closed family shop
Yet even now the government appears incapable of learning lessons. Ministers continue to give the impression that they simply don’t get it. The latest example of this tone-deaf failure to read the public mood came during the second Commons reading of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, aimed at kicking out the 92 peers who inherited their seat. Afterwards, Ellie Reeves MP, Minister without Portfolio, was exultant about the new legislation, writing on X:
‘I was extremely proud to close 2nd Reading of the Bill that will remove the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. It cannot be right in modern Britain that there are Lords who serve in our legislature simply because of the family they were born into.’
This is the same Ellie Reeves whose sister, husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law were all Labour MPs before she was. It is a bit rich, to say the least, to sound off about getting rid of hereditary peers while being apparently not too fussed about the idea of Labour party royalty.
Ellie Reeves is just one of many high-profile examples of Labour’s very own closed family shop. She is the MP for Lewisham West and Penge. Her husband, John Cryer, was the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead from 2010 to 2024. His parents, Bob and Ann Cryer, were both Labour MPs. Ellie’s sister, Rachel, is the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Our new Labour rulers are very much a family business, even though in theory they are strongly against any whiff of privilege or special treatment. The reality is that all too many people in the party are umbilically linked to someone important, whether it be through marriage or family.
Morgan McSweeney, the new Downing Street chief of staff, is married to a Labour MP, Imogen Walker. Hamish Falconer, only elected this summer but now a junior minister, is the son of former Labour Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer. There’s Hilary Benn, who is the son of that great campaigner against hereditary privilege, Tony. Stephen Kinnock (son of Neil) is another who sits on the Labour benches. Both Miliband brothers (Ed and David) climbed the greasy pole quickly enough. There are the Eagle twins, Angela and Maria, as well as Valerie Vaz (sister of Keith). There’s Georgia Gould, daughter of Philip, who was a senior adviser to Tony Blair. The list is simply endless.
Labour insiders will point out that there is a big difference between following family members into politics and simply getting power and influence as a birthright. Yes, but it sure helps to have family links to ease your way into the circles of power.
The Labour party likes to talk the talk about equal opportunities and a fairer world, standing firm against all forms of privilege. Yet in reality, it reeks of nepotism, open to those with the right family connections, and packed to the rafters with nepo babies – and red princes. It might be described as hereditary privilege, but of a very special Labour kind. So that’s all right then.
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