THE Tories and Labour have been “stuffing” the unelected House of Lords with donors, new analysis has revealed.
Disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson has been named as the most prolific appointer of peers in the last decade in new research carried out by the news site openDemocracy.
The Conservative Party took £17 million in donations from people he appointed to Westminster’s undemocratic upper chamber, the research revealed, with 14 of the 50 peers nominated during Johnson’s time as PM either previous or future party donors.
Johnson appointed former aide Charlotte Owen as a peer, who at age 30 is thought to be the youngest member of the House of Lords in history.
In second place for most appointments was former Tory prime minister David Cameron, openDemocracy reported.
There have been 276 appointments to the House of Lords between 2013 until the start of 2023, the research found, with some £51.8m donated by the appointees to the parties that nominated them.
Slightly under a quarter of Lords appointees in the last decade were political donors and almost half had a “political connection” to parties, the site reported.
Of the £51.8m donated in total, the lion’s share (£46.8m) went to the Tories.
The LibDems had received £2.4m from its 27 Lords appointees since 2013, the investigation found, while Labour received most of its Lords donations from one source – William Haughey, who donated £2m of the party’s total £2.37m from Lords appointees.
Scottish tycoon Haughey was elevated to the upper house in 2013 by then Labour leader Ed Miliband.
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said the figures were a “sad indictment” of the UK’s “so-called democracy”. The SNP do not nominate peers as a longstanding matter of party policy.
Sheppard said: “Once again Labour and the Tories are joined at the hip on another key issue and blind to the mood of the public.
“It’s a sad indictment on our so-called democracy in the UK that it isn’t even surprising that both Labour and Tory leaders have abused their privileges to appoint party donors and cronies to unelected lifelong seats in the Lords.
“Cronyism is alive and well with a functioning pay for power system thriving in the halls of Westminster, where donors are rewarded for propping up Labour and the Tories.
“The undemocratic House of Lords is an affront to democracy, and in no way shape or form represents the ordinary people of Scotland.
“And yet, with both Labour and the Tories committed to preserving the institution we’re forced to watch as democracy and basic principles are eroded in the name of this dated and unelected second chamber.
“These figures aren’t just further proof of how Westminster is broken, they also lay bare the hypocrisy of Labour who for decades have promised reform while stuffing the Lords with donors and cronies to meet their own real agenda.
“The status quo may work for them, but it doesn’t for Scotland. The Westminster system is archaic and broken beyond repair, and the only escape is with the full powers of independence.”
There are currently 777 members of the House of Lords, including Church of England bishops and the Lord Speaker. Peers are not salaried though they can claim a £323 allowance for working days.
