REMEMBER THESE LORDS’ AND LADIES’ SCANDALS...
LORD RENNARD
SUSPENDED by Lib Dems in 2013 accused of ‘at least 30’ counts of sexual harassment and nicknamed ‘Lord Grope’. The former party treasurer was allowed back after apologising to four women for ‘encroaching on their personal space’. Quit as party chief executive in 2009 over the expenses scandal.
LORD CLARKE
CONFESSED he’d ‘fiddled’ expenses by claiming around £18,000 a year for overnight stays in London when he was lodging with friends for free or returning home to St Albans. Repaid £9,190 and made an apology.
LORD FOULKES
PLEADED guilty when an MP in the Nineties to being drunk and disorderly and fined £1,050 following a party hosted by the Scotch Whisky Association. More recently, was revealed to have claimed £54,527 in Lords expenses while being paid as a member of the Scottish Parliament. In 2008, newspapers disclosed he was claiming £45,000 to stay in a London flat he inherited from his mother.
BARONESS UDDIN
CAUGHT fraudulently claiming £123,349 in expenses by saying she lived outside London when her family home was actually in Wapping. After being exposed by a Sunday newspaper, an anti-sleaze committee found her expenses claims were ‘made wrongly and in bad faith’. After a police investigation, the Blairite peer avoided prosecution but was suspended from the Lords for a record 18 months, and from the Labour Party.
LORD MACKENZIE
FILMED by undercover journalists offering to set up an influential all-party Parliamentary group in return for payment. Agreed to ask questions and approach ministers in order to ‘bend their ears’ on behalf of a fictitious solar energy company. The former police chief and Labour peer was suspended for six months.
LORD MANDELSON
TWICE forced to resign from the Cabinet in disgrace after the Press exposed his questionable financial dealings. Runs a lobbying firm called Global Counsel, which profits from a number of unpleasant foreign regimes, yet uses a loophole in Lords rules to keep its client list secret.
LORD TRUSCOTT
FORMER Labour minister was filmed by undercover journalists offering to work ‘behind the scenes’ to change the law in exchange for a £72,000 fee. He was suspended for six months. Last year, he claimed £57,000 in allowances and expenses, despite speaking only three times — £19,000 for each speech.
LORD WATSON
JAILED for 16 months for fire-raising after setting ablaze curtains at Prestonfield House hotel, Edinburgh. The ex-MSP returned to Parliament and claimed £300-aday allowances while on parole. Clocked-up £30,000 in ten months — despite speaking for less than 30 minutes.
LORD BLENCATHRA
FORCED to apologise for breaking Lords’ rules after The Independent revealed he was paid £12,000 a month to work for the Cayman Islands. He denied being paid to lobby — but the paper obtained a copy of his contract, which cited lobbying Parliament as part of his job description.
BARONESS TONGE
QUIT Lib Dems when paper revealed she’d hosted a meeting in Parliament where it was claimed that Jews had ‘antagonised Hitler’, and the Holocaust was caused by ‘Judea declaring war on Germany’.
LORD BASSAM
RESIGNED as Labour chief whip before Christmas after being caught claiming £36,366 for overnight stays in London despite commuting from Brighton. He’d also been claiming £6,400 a year in rail and cab fares. Denied breaching rules but has agreed to repay more than £40,000.