Minister defends ‘rich mix’ in the House of Lords amid sleaze outcry over peerages for more than a dozen Tory treasurers who donated more than £3m each to the party
- Report found 15 of last 16 Tory treasurers offered peerage after donating £3m
- But Trevelyan praised the ‘rich mix’ of backgrounds in the upper chamber
- International Trade Secretary said UK had ‘incredible system’ for funding politics
Cabinet minister today defended the way seats in the House of Lords are dished out amid a sleaze row involving wealthy Tory donors.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan praised the ‘rich mix’ of backgrounds in the upper chamber after claims were made about access for senior party figures.
A Sunday Times report yesterday showed 15 of the last 16 Conservative Party treasurers have been offered a seat in the Lords, having each donated more than £3 million to the party.
The Tories have denied any link between the donations and the nominations to sit in the Lords, in the latest twist in ongoing allegations of sleaze in Parliament.
On Monday, Ms Trevelyan said the chamber had a ‘rich mix which brings a real depth of voices to our political parties across the piste.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan praised the ‘rich mix’ of backgrounds in the upper chamber after claims were made about access for senior party figures.
A Sunday Times report yesterday showed 15 of the last 16 Conservative Party treasurers have been offered a seat in the Lords, having each donated more than £3 million to the party.
She told Sky News: ‘We have an incredible system in the UK where we don’t ask the state to fund our political parties and if we didn’t have the private donations that come through from donors large and small – in my constituency, people donate £25 a year and donors who can provide more, do more – if we didn’t do that the taxpayer would be funding political activity.
‘I think our UK system is uniquely well-placed to ensure that we get this broad stretch … the unions fund a great deal of the Labour Party’s activity, again that’s from many, many small voices, and then some large ones too.
Ms Trevelyan insisted there was a formal process in place, but was challenged on ITV’s Good Morning Britain over the Prime Minister’s ability to overrule the Lords appointments commission, as he did with Lord Cruddas.
The Prime Minister sparked a croynism row last December when he over-ruled objections to make Peter Cruddas, dubbed the ‘City of London’s richest man’, a peer.
At the time he was estimated to be worth £860million and had previously given more than £3.5million to the party.
Figures released by the Electoral Commission earlier this year showed that the banker and businessman poured an additional six-figure sum into central party coffers in February, days after taking his seat in the upper chamber.
But Ms Trevelyan told GMB: ‘So the Prime Minister always has the final say, the Prime Minister of the day always has the final say, as have other prime ministers in the past.’
Ms Trevelyan told Sky News: ‘I don’t think that someone who happens to have been an extremely good businessman and has made a great deal of money through business activity – usually also an enormous amount of philanthropy as well, those are the sorts of people who are across our country, amazing people of all political colours – that they should be barred from going to the House of Lords because they have made a lot of money, employed many, many thousands of people, run incredible businesses at their own risk, that that somehow is a bar. That’s not the case.
‘Those who choose to put themselves forward in political environments, as well as their business and philanthropic ones, will go through the process just like anyone else, and we want a rich mix in the House of Lords of voices with experience of all the sectors of our country.’
Source: Read Full Article
