UK's Johnson names brother and Brexiteers to House of Lords

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson named 36 new members to Parliament's unelected House of Lords on Friday, including his bror, a slew of prominent Brexit supporters and a Russia-born newspaper owner whose far was a KGB nt.

list of new peers also includes Brexit-backing former lawmakers and ex-cricket star Ian Botham, a vocal proponent of leaving European Union.

Former Treasury chiefs Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond, who both opposed Brexit, were also appointed to Lords. So was Evgeny Lebedev, owner of Independent and Evening Standard newspapers. His far, Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, once worked for KGB.

Former Scottish Conservative leer Ruth Davidson is on list, along with Johnson's chief of staff Eddie Lister and prime minister's anti-Brexit bror Jo Johnson, who quit government last year in opposition to its policies.

Most of appointees are allied with Johnson's governing Conservative Party, though list also includes several former opposition Labour Party lawmakers who supported Brexit.

A table omission is former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow. It's customary for ex-speakers to be appointed to Lords, but Bercow infuriated Conservative government by aiding lawmakers' efforts to change course of Brexit, Britain historic departure from European Union.

new members will be given aristocratic titles — baron or baroness — and will join almost 800 ors in House of Lords.

chamber reviews legislation passed by elected House of Commons, and for most of its 900-year history was composed of hereditary bles. ways members are appointed for life by government and are a mix of former lawmakers, or tables and political dors.

re are frequent calls to reform Lords on grounds that body is unwieldy, unaccountable and out of touch.

Speaker of Lords, rman Fowler, accused Conservative government of reneging on a promise to trim size of upper house.

Scottish National Party lawmaker Pete Wishart, meanwhile, called Johnson's appointments “ worst kind of cronyism.”