JK Rowling turned down House of Lords peerage twice

JK Rowling has revealed she turned down two offers of a peerage in the House of Lords and would turn down a third.

The author’s remarks came after Conservative Party leader hopeful Kemi Badenoch said she would give Rowling a peerage for her stance on gender – a position critics have described as being transphobic.

The Harry Potter author said in a post on X that she had been offered peerages “once under Labour and once under the Tories”, adding she “still wouldn’t take it” if offered the honour for a third time.

Most peers sitting in the House of Lords are appointed by the monarch on the prime minister’s advice, with nominations vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

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Badenoch praised Rowling in an interview with the Talk TV online streaming service, saying they both believed protections for women should be based not on self-identified gender but rather biological sex.

The MP for North West Essex said of Rowling: “I don’t know whether she would take it, but I certainly would give her a peerage.”

The former equalities minister went on to praise Baroness Cass for her review of NHS children’s gender services – work Badenoch “managed to get” the doctor a peerage for.

Writing on X, Rowling said: “It’s considered bad form to talk about this but I’ll make an exception given the very particular circumstances.

“I’ve already turned down a peerage twice, once under Labour and once under the Tories. If offered one a third time, I still wouldn’t take it.”
She said in an apparent reference to Badenoch: “It’s not her, it’s me.”

Rowling was awarded an OBE in 2001, and was made a Companion of Honour in 2017 by Prince William, then the Duke of Cambridge, for her work.

While the precise dates the author was offered the two peerages are unclear, the first would have come in the New Labour years, when Rowling was still writing the Harry Potter series.

The final book in Rowling’s best-selling wizard series was published in 2007. In the years since, she has written articles, plays and a series of crime books for adults under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

The crime series, known collectively under the title Cormoran Strike, were published throughout the 2010s – during which time Rowling was presumably offered a peerage for the second time.

If she had taken up a seat in the House of Lords, the author would most likely have been given the title of Baroness Rowling – and if she found the time to attend sessions, she would have a say in the work of Parliament’s second chamber, considering draft laws and potentially participating in select committees.