Now granny’s on the public payroll as well
After row over MP giving Commons job to her drug shame son...
THE mother of a Labour MP who resigned from the Shadow Cabinet after lying over her son’s drugs conviction was sworn in as a peer yesterday.
Martha Osamor, 78, was handed the peerage by her friend Jeremy Corbyn.
Now Baroness Osamor, who was barred from standing for Labour in the 1980s because of her hard-Left views, can claim a tax-free daily attendance allowance of £305 – which averages at £22,000 per member a year.
Mr Corbyn’s decision in May to elevate her was controversial because the new peer, mother of MP Kate Osamor, had signed a letter of protest over the suspensions of party members for alleged anti-Semitism. Gideon Falter, of the Campaign Against AntiSemitism, described her appointment as a ‘two-fingered salute’ to the Jewish community.
Baroness Osamor wore ermine as she was introduced to the Upper House in a short ceremony yesterday. She chose not to pose for an official photograph – peers can opt to take this ‘no publicity’ option when being sworn in.
Earlier this week, her daughter resigned as Labour’s international development spokesman over lies she told about her involvement in her son Ishmael’s court case for drugs offences.
Miss Osamor was further accused of wasting police time by calling 999 twice when reporters attempted to question her. She had allegedly told a reporter she should have ‘smashed his face in’ with a bat.
Miss Osamor, MP for Edmonton in London, had denied knowing about her son’s trial before it was exposed by the Daily Mail. But a legal challenge by this newspaper and others proved she knew because she had written to the trial judge requesting leniency.
Ishmael Osamor, 29, was convicted after being caught with £2,500 worth of drugs at a festival in Dorset last year. He is still on a public payroll as his mother’s chief of staff after being cleared by a Westminster probe into whether he should keep his Commons pass. Some MPs branded the inquiry a whitewash.
Baroness Osamor is the third member of the Osamors to benefit from public money. Ishmael’s salary is provided by the taxpayerfunded Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
Miss Osamor lives in social housing in Tottenham.
Baroness Osamor’s Lords debut was delayed seven months while she applied to have Nigeria included in her title.
Officially, she is Baroness Osamor of Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey and of Asaba in the Republic of Nigeria.