Mr Gove suggested Stoke-on-Trent, a 165-mile drive from London and hosted Wednesday’s “guest day” for the cabinet as an “excellent home”.
In his letter, first seen by The Sunday Times, he cited Burnley, Edinburgh, Sunderland, Plymouth, Wolverhampton and York as other options in case Stoke were deemed inappropriate.
The plans for the lords to move to York during the renovation work were first outlined by James Cleverley in January 2020 and discussed by Mr Gove in an interview in February. But it is clear that the rich have been expelled after fears that the public will not see moving there as an “equalizer”.
Baroness Heyman, a former lord president, has rejected the idea of moving colleagues to another part of the country while the House of Commons continues to sit in the capital.
“I think this is – what Michael Gove said – insane,” she told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, referring to Mr Gove’s use of the term when talking about the Tory rebels’ plans. to Take Down Boris Johnson | “I think [ministers] they are really quite angry with the House of Lords at the moment and that’s why [want to] drive them out. It’s a punishment. “
Lisa Nandi, secretary for shadowing, accused Mr Gove of “another recycled statement from a government that first spoke about it two and a half years ago”.
“For all the tricks, slogans and press releases, with every measure to raise the level, we go back,” she said.
A spokesman for the House of Lords said the Lord Speaker would respond to Mr Gove’s letter “properly”, adding: “Any decision on whether and where to move the House of Lords, whether on a permanent or temporary basis, to it’s up to the house itself. “
The annual cost of maintaining the two houses of parliament, which has doubled in the last four years, now stands at £ 127m.
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