diff --git a/.github/workflows/IssueLabelChecker.yml b/.github/workflows/IssueLabelChecker.yml
index 266483508..2ba380c36 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/IssueLabelChecker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/IssueLabelChecker.yml
@@ -14,9 +14,22 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
     - name: Check and Add label
       run: |
-        LABELS=$(gh issue view ${{ github.event.issue.number }} --json labels -q '.labels[].name')
-        if [[ $LABELS != *"needs review"* ]]; then
-          gh issue edit ${{ github.event.issue.number }} --add-label "needs review"
+        # The cryptic head -c -1 is because otherwise gh always terminates output with a newline
+        readarray -d $'\0' lifecycles < <(gh issue view ${{ github.event.issue.number }} --json labels -q '[.labels[] | .name | select(startswith("lifecycle/"))] | join("\u0000")' | head -c -1)
+        if [[ ${#lifecycles[@]} -ne 1 ]]; then
+          if [[ ${#lifecycles[@]} -ge 1 ]]; then
+            echo 'Too many lifecycle labels; replacing all with `lifecycle/needs review`'
+          fi
+          commands=()
+          for label in "${lifecycles[@]}"; do
+            if [[ "$label" != "lifecycle/needs review" ]]; then
+              echo "Removing label ${label}"
+              commands+=("--remove-label" "${label}")
+            fi
+          done
+          echo 'Adding `lifecycle/needs review`'
+          commands+=("--add-label" "lifecycle/needs review")
+          gh issue edit ${{ github.event.issue.number }} "${commands[@]}"
         fi
       env:
         GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
\ No newline at end of file