Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has nominated London Mayor Sadiq Khan for a seat in the House of Lords, making him one of 26 new life peers in one of the final acts of his premiership.

The UK government announced the appointments on Thursday, saying the list includes figures from politics, business, philanthropy, the military and civil society who will join the upper chamber of Parliament as life peers, allowing them to scrutinise, amend and vote on legislation.

Khan, a former Labour MP for Tooting, has served as London mayor since 2016 and is currently midway through his third term in office.

The nominations come ahead of a Labour leadership transition, with Andy Burnham set to become party leader and prime minister on July 20.

Under long-standing convention, outgoing prime ministers recommend individuals for life peerages before leaving office.

Of the 26 appointments, 16 were nominated by Labour, five by the Liberal Democrats, three by the Conservatives and two were appointed as crossbench peers with no party affiliation.

Among Labour’s nominees are human rights advocates Parvais Jabbar and Saul Lehrfreund, co-founders of the Death Penalty Project, and Cathy Ashley, a campaigner for families’ rights and former head of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The Conservative Party nominated former Chief of the General Staff General Sir Patrick Sanders, while the Liberal Democrats selected economist Tim Leunig, chief economist at the social innovation foundation Nesta.

Crossbench nominee Sir Brian Leveson, the former senior judge who chaired the 2011 inquiry into Britain’s phone-hacking scandal, was also included on the list.

Starmer did not recommend any nominees from Reform UK, despite the party holding seven seats in the House of Commons following Nigel Farage’s resignation as an MP earlier this month.

Farage criticised the decision, saying it left the upper chamber even less representative.

Before the latest appointments, the Conservatives held 246 seats in the House of Lords, compared with Labour’s 216, giving the opposition a numerical advantage in the upper chamber.