Clamour to trim Lords over expenses scandal
CALLS for the membership of the bloated House of Lords to be slashed intensified yesterday following fresh accusations that peers can pocket £40,000 a year for barely turning up for parliamentary work.
A string of members of the upper house were alleged to have claimed thousands of pounds in taxpayerfunded expenses despite making little or no contribution to debates, questions or committees.
They were said to have been receiving £300 a day just for attending.
In total, £19.1million was claimed by peers in allowances during the financial year 2015-16.
stuffing
Campaigners against wasteful spending in Westminster and Whitehall last night called for Lords membership – which is currently around 800 peers – to be drastically reduced.
Alex Wild of the TaxPayers’ Alliance pressure group said: “The important work of the Lords is being undermined by payments for very little work and stuffing the benches with friends.
“The size of the chamber must be reduced and that will allow those peers who are immersed in the work of acting as a check to the Commons to do their job, and save taxpayers’ cash.”
An investigation into peers’ expenses alleged that crossbench peer Lord Paul, one of Britain’s wealthiest businessmen, last year received £40,800 in expenses for 136 days in Parliament but made no contributions in votes or questions and was not a member of a committee.
Researchers analysed the latest expenses records and cross-referenced them with the parliamentary record of peers’ contributions to debates, committees and votes in the investigation.
Lord Paul, who voted on four pieces of legislation out of a total of 114, told the investigation that his allowance claims were “more than representative” of the work he had done in Parliament.
Lord Hanningfield was said to have claimed £3,300 for 11 days’ attendance when he contributed to no votes and only one debate.
The life peer and former Tory member was jailed for expenses fraud in 2011.
He was later accused of wrongly claiming around £3,300 in expenses in 2013, but was cleared after Parliament intervened. He told investigators: “People are making a mountain out of a molehill. I may have made a mistake in the past but I am still being penalised for it.”
Crossbench peer Lord Carswell was said to have claimed £7,800 for 29 days’ attendance, but did not vote or make any written or spoken contribution in the chamber.
Former speaker Baroness D’Souza spent months investigating which peers were clocking in to collect their allowance. She later abandoned the probe to avoid “naming and shaming” colleagues and provoking a “press storm”.
A House of Lords spokesman said: “Where members are shown to have claimed when they have not undertaken parliamentary work, the House has the power to suspend them.”