Independent peers rejected in favour of Cameron’s allies

Former prime minister appointed 123 lords, while limiting cross-bench peers to only two per year

ONE of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs and the former leader of Britain’s police chiefs were among a series of figures passed over for independent peerages as David Cameron appointed more than 100 political allies to the House of Lords, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Sir James Dyson, the inventor, and Sir Hugh Orde, who was president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, were interviewed by the Whitehall committee tasked with appointing “cross-bench” peers – but both were denied places in the upper chamber.

The disclosure calls into question the system to appoint independent peers, with the House of Lords Appointments Commission having to reject the vast number of candidates it considers as a result of Mr Cameron limiting the body to making two new independent appointments per year.

Its formal role includes “add[ing] to the breadth of experience and expertise” in the Lords.

Those rejected by the commission since 2015 also include John Studzinski, a senior managing director of Blackstone, the private equity firm, and Martin Lewis, the consumer champion behind the Money Saving Expert website.

Deborah Bull, former creative direc- A former Conservative MP censured by the parliamentary standards watchdog over his expenses was put forward as a possible peer despite David Cameron previously describing his actions as “indefensible”.

Plans to enoble Sir Nicholas Winterton were dropped after he was vetted by the independent House of Lords Appointments Commission during Mr Cameron’s final year as prime minister.

Sir Nicholas is understood to have entered into protracted correspondence with the panel before the matter was closed.

Sir Nicholas and Lady Winterton, his wife, were both

tor of the Royal Opera House, Professor Vernon Bogdanor, a leading constitutional expert, and David Anderson, Britain’s former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, were shortlisted in 2016 but apparently passed over for peerages as Downing Street made its selections of Tory nominees.

In 2012 Mr Cameron asked the commission to limit its number of appointments to two per year amid concerns about the size of the upper chamber.

Meanwhile, he put forward 123 nominations of new Tory peers during the course of his premiership.

Under the current system, the commission puts forward its final names to No 10, which then controls when those nominations are made and announced. MPs but stood down from Parliament in 2010 after being exposed in The Telegraph’s expenses investigation.

In 2002, after paying off the mortgage on their £700,000 London flat with the help of taxpayer-funded expenses, the couple gave the property to a family trust controlled by their children. They then claimed more than £120,000 in expenses to rent the flat over six years.

Sir Nicholas said the arrangement had been approved by Commons authorities.

The Commission, which vets political nominations for “propriety”, declined to comment.

None have been announced as a result of the body’s recommendations since 2015. But it is understood that the commission’s first nominations under Mrs May’s premiership were put forward to No 10 in recent weeks.

One source familiar with the process said that the system allowed Downing Street to focus on appointing political peers, at a time when the Prime Minister is under pressure to avoid further ballooning the size of the House.

The current process is stacked against people who would present a “robust challenge” to the Government in the Lords, the source added.

Sir James, a prominent Brexiteer, and Sir Hugh, who railed against cuts to the police, have been critical of the Conservative Government.

The disclosures were made as Theresa May prepares to announce a list of around ten new Conservative peers in a bid to reward ex-MPs and shore up the Conservatives’ numbers in the Lords ahead of a series of battles expected over the EU Withdrawal Bill, beginning later this month.

The Democratic Unionist Party, on whose support Mrs May is relying for a Commons majority, is also expected to receive a new peer, along with three for Labour. Other names shortlisted by the Commission since 2015 include Rosie Boycott, the former food adviser to the mayor of London and newspaper editor, Dame Asha Khemka, a prominent Indian-born college principal, and Sir John Tooke, a former president of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Anne Johnson, a professor of epidemiology, was also shortlisted.

None of the shortlisted candidates have been formally nominated.

By convention, announcements of nominations by the commission are separated from political appointments by No 10 and any new peers proposed by the commission are expected to be announced some time after Mrs May’s New Year list of peers is released as early as this week.

During his tenure, Mr Cameron created 110 new Conservative peers, in addition to another 13, including several No 10 advisers, in his final act as prime minister.

In October, Theresa May announced five new independent peers, none of whom had been put forward by the official appointments commission.

A spokesman for the appointments commission declined to comment.