Iceland boss to be made Labour peer

The 45-year-old had previously been a Conservative Party supporter but left in 2023. Early the following year, he made clear his support of Keir Starmer’s Labour, writing in The Guardian that Keir Starmer “has exactly what it takes to be a great leader.”

According to sources in the Labour Party quoted by the BBC, Walker was noted as “a committed champion of families dealing with the cost of living” and “will be a strong voice in parliament”.

Walker was named chief executive of Iceland in 2023, taking over from his father Sir Malcom Walker, who founded the grocery retailer in 1970. He had previously been on a long list of Conservative candidates to be an MP, having been a part of the Tory government’s business council. 

Walker is a strong backer of the Labour government’s moves to change regulations around baby formula to make clear that supermarket own-brand products were nutritionally identical to more expensive brands. Iceland began placing its own on-shelf labelling in stores with this information early last year. 

In February, he told the Financial Times that he rated the Labour government a “six out of 10”, saying that there needed to be more immediate support to end Britain’s productivity crisis, adding that the rise in employer national insurance contributions had “added greatly to the cost of business”.

However, he said that he still believed in the party’s “pro-business,pro-growth message”.

There are currently 210 Labour peers in the House of Lords, compared to 283 from the Conservatives.