Labour Minister Alison McGovern has demanded an “apology” from Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho for “lecturing” the Government on their latest House of Lords appointments.
Speaking to GB News, Ms Coutinho said Labour is “stuffing” the House of Lords in order to “push forward controversial legislation that was not in their manifesto”.
She claimed: “The reason is that they have brought forward legislation which is incredibly controversial, assisted dying, decriminalisation of abortion right up to full term, and lifting the two-child benefit cap, for example, that they simply did not tell people about at the election.”
Clapping back at the remarks, Ms McGovern told GB News: “Overall, my response to Claire Coutinho talking about this issue would be that she has more front than Blackpool.
“Quite frankly, given the way that the Conservative Party cycled through Prime Ministers, cycled through Chancellor of the Exchequers, they didn’t change our country, they left us with an absolute crisis.
“A million more children growing up in poverty, with rough sleeping and kids in totally inappropriate accommodation going through the roof, that is the problem that the Labour Party is having to fix to clean up after 14 years of Tory misrule.”
Demanding an apology from Ms Coutinho, Ms McGovern added: “If I was Claire Coutinho, I would think about saying sorry for some of those things before she started to lecture other people.”
Responding to the Labour minister’s remarks, host Stephen Dixon argued that the top Tory was simply highlighting that there are policies such as assisted dying and decriminalising abortion that the Government appears to be “struggling” to get through the House of Lords.
Local Government Minister Alison McGovern has demanded an apology from Tory Secretary Claire Coutinho for ‘lecturing’ Labour on the House of Lords
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Ms McGovern responded: “You’ve mentioned two issues there that are issues of conscience that are dealt with by Parliament on a non-partisan basis, because we have a long standing convention that those are issues of conscience.
“On assisted dying, that is a private member’s piece of legislation. On abortion, I think it is wrong. I don’t recognise your characterisation of the policy. I think it is wrong that women ought to be criminalised for their healthcare needs.”
She added: “I think the most important thing is that we rebuild our health service so that it’s able to take care of people in this country, which is what we have been doing with five million more appointments.”
Quizzing Ms McGovern further, Stephen questioned the minister on Labour’s previous criticism of the Conservatives for appointing peers in the House of Lords, recalling them accusing the Tories of a “carousel of cronyism”.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho accused Labour of appointing more House of Lords peers to push ‘radical’ legislation through Parliament
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Ms McGovern told GB News: “What’s different is about the way that we have approached changing the House of Lords. So we have been trying to remove the hereditary peers, I think most people would find it really shocking that in 2025 we still have people who’ve inherited their right to legislate. We’re changing that.
“We’re also bringing forward proposals that will limit the length of time people can spend in the House of Lords, making sure that they retire at least 80 so we are changing the House of Lords, and we’ll go further.”
Hitting out at the Tories, she added: “The issue is, after 14 years of Conservative Government, and the number of people that they put in the House of Lords. It is in no way balanced in the way that it ought to be constitutionally. We were elected on a manifesto. We should be able to get our manifesto commitments through the House of Lords.
“We’re appointing new peers from various walks of life, along with other parties. That is, at the moment, the only way that people can be put into the House of Lords. And that is how we’re responding to the situation that we face.”
Ms McGovern told GB News that Ms Coutinho has ‘more front than Blackpool’
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GB NEWS
Grilled on Birmingham’s ongoing bin strikes and Labour’s lack of intervention in the matter, she said: “The Government is already intervening in Birmingham. The previous Government and ministers appointed commissioners before I was the Minister for Local Government, that means the Government is directly intervening.
“The people of Birmingham deserve far better. We want to see everybody coming together to try to resolve this, and we’ll take steps to help that, because the most important thing is that people in Birmingham have a good quality service from their council. That’s what the commissioners are there to assure. And I’ll be watching over that process to make sure that that happens.”
She added: “It’s terrible. It shouldn’t be going on in this way, and I want to see this being brought to an end, as I said just now, the Government has already intervened. We already have commissioners, and we need to progress this issue with the level of urgency, because the people of Birmingham deserve better.
“Everybody should be able to rely on basic services that their council can provide. Unfortunately, beyond Birmingham, which has some specific issues, that’s much less likely to be the case now because of 14 years of Tory town hall austerity.”