KEIR Starmer has been slammed for appointing another new peer to a Government post – despite previous pledges to abolish the House of Lords.
Former cybersecurity chief Poppy Gustafsson (below) has been given a peerage to become Investment Minister, head of the new Office of Investment.
She left her position as chief executive of Darktrace when it was sold last month to a US private equity firm.
Starmer has appointed others to the unelected upper chamber, despite running on a ticket during the 2020 Labour leadership election promising to abolish the House of Lords.
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This has since been dramatically scaled back to plans to get rid of the 92 hereditary peers still in the Lords.
Gustafsson’s appointment has sparked backlash online, with critics highlighting Starmer’s previous opposition to the undemocratic institution.
One Twitter/X user said: “This is just the same unelected wealthy elites running our lives. No different to the Tories.”
Another added: “The same people who said there was too much cronyism in lifelong peerages, have in under 100 days started appointing them.
“We thought it was naivety, looking a lot more like arrogance and entitlement to do all the wrong things because they view themselves as ‘good people.’”
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The Bella Caledonia blog tweeted: “Weren't they going to abolish the House of Lords?”
One critic added: “What other country in the world allows random people off the street to be shoehorned into positions of power without being elected?”
Ross Colquhoun, the SNP’s head of digital said: “I’m old enough to remember when Labour promised to abolish the House of Lords (last year).”
Other appointees to the upper house include Starmer’s Attorney General Richard Hermer, for whom he snubbed Emily Thornberry (above).
Former chief scientific adviser to the Government Patrick Vallance was ennobled to become Minister for Science.
Prisons Minister James Timpson left his position as chief executive of the Timpson Group in July to take a seat in the Lords and serve in Starmer’s government.
Gustafsson left her position at Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm, when it was sold to the private equity firm Thoma Bravo for £4.2 billion in September.
Darktrace was founded in 2013 by Gustafsson and the late billionaire Mike Lynch, who died in a sea storm off the coast of Sicily in August.
In a profile by accountancy firm Deloitte, Gustafsson spoke of how the firm brought together ex-MI5 and GCHQ “spooks” with Cambridge University “geeks” backed by Lynch’s capital.
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