Two labour peers is hardly worth getting your knickers in a twist over MG, and I wouldn’t knock the left wing too much, just take a look at what the right wing are currently doing. They deserve much more of your concern.
When I read the press reports of the NPAS release, I felt that the reporters had misunderstood what BVLOS meant and seemed to think that the onboard systems would be able to ‘see’ beyond visual line of sight, (a much more oppressive idea), rather than the the whole package could be controlled beyond line of sight.
notwithstanding that, I’d double your 5 years unless there is a big change in airspace management (or global warming gives us 24/7 CAVOK.