THE House of Lords spent thousands of pounds on the upkeep of peers’ robes and other formal attire in the past 12 months.
Tommy Sheppard MP, the SNP’s constitution spokesperson, criticised the use of taxpayers’ money on Lords “playing medieval dress up”.
The news comes from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request shared with The National which asked Westminster’s upper house for details on the cost of upkeeping the formal dress its members use.
The request asked to be told: “The total cost of dry cleaning, repairing and ordering new robes and other formal dress used within the House of Lords, including that of the Lord Speaker, for the last 12 months.”
In its response, the Lords’ FOI team revealed that the total cost had been £5,419.04. A spokesperson told The National that not all of this expenditure was on the famous ermine robes of peers, and that a proportion was spent on staffers’ formal uniforms.
Asked for a breakdown of the £5419 figure, they declined, saying that providing that information would require a new FOI request to be submitted.
Sheppard said: “It beggars belief that while ordinary families struggle to make ends meet, taxpayers are forced to fork out more than £5000 so that unelected peers can continue to play medieval dress up.”
A spokesperson for the House of Lords said: "The costs relate to uniforms used every day by a large number of staff across the House of Lords as a function of their roles."
