Nigel Farage ripped into Sir Keir Starmer after Reform UK was snubbed over new peerages. A series of nominations to the House of Lords were confirmed yesterday, with 25 from Labour, three for the Tories and five for the Lib Dems.

But Reform did not get any despite having pressed for the right to do so earlier this year. Mr Farage has argued his insurgent party should be allowed to as it is leading national opinion polls.

Speaking on his GB News show tonight, the Reform leader accused the Prime Minister of being part of an establishment that is “shutting down free speech”.

The Clacton MP said: “It’s House of Lords time. And guess what? 25 Labour peers have been appointed, five Liberal Democrats, and three Conservatives. But I wonder, is Keir Starmer being a hypocrite?

“And guess what? I wonder how many peers Reform got? Absolutely none. The fact we’ve led the last 150 polls, the fact that every other small party, I’d say small by House of Commons representation, does have representation of the Lords. Absolutely nothing for Reform at all.

“I did write a very polite letter to the Prime Minister three months ago to make the case that we needed a voice of some kind there. And, you know, I didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply.

“That really did surprise me, because I used to think that Starmer was basically a pretty reasonable bloke with whom I just disagreed on policy. I’m not quite so sure.

“I think he’s part of an establishment that is not only shutting down free speech, but literally wants to shut Reform out of the whole political system. Well, I think it’s pretty appalling.”

The series of Labour appointments to Parliament’s upper chamber comes as the Government has faced staunch opposition from peers over its flagship workers’ rights legislation.

The Conservatives remain the largest bloc in the Lords, with 282 peers compared with Labour’s 234.