Controversial path to a pot of gold

LORD Howard, 76, stood down as an MP in 2010, but clearly had no intention of taking things easy. As well as his duties as a peer, he has taken on a handful of nonexecutive director roles at controversial companies. He makes £75,000 a year as a director of Watchstone Group, the company created out of the ashes of troubled technology business Quindell. The Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into Quindell in 2015 over alleged accounting irregularities that happened before Lord Howard was brought on board to help clean it up.

He promised to banish the ‘shadow’ that was hanging over Quindell, which is still under investigation.

Howard is also chairman of Soma Oil & Gas, a Somalian oil explorer that is not listed on the stock market, in which he has a 3.9 per cent stake.

The Serious Fraud Office dropped a probe into alleged bribery at that company in 2016, saying there was ‘insufficient evidence to provide a realistic [prospect of] conviction’. Soma, which is majority-owned by the Russia’s billionaire Djaparidze family, denied any wrongdoing.

Howard remains a paid consultant to Vancouverbased miners Entrée Resources after stepping down as chairman and is on the advisory board of Tanzanian gas firm Orca Exploration. He was also a director of Global Switch, the London-based data centres giant which is now controlled by Chinese investors.