Scandal of the ‘peers for hire’
GREG BARKER was one of David Cameron’s more forgettable ministers. Appointed a peer in 2015, he disappeared into the Lords. Now he’s taken leave of absence from the Upper House to work with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska as chairman of his aluminium and power giant EN+ Group. Lord Barker has earned his roubles — helping this Putin crony navigate around foreign sanctions on Russian firms. Under parliamentary rules, he can return to the Lords whenever he likes and help make laws for the rest of us. There are too many ‘peers-for-hire’. They make an unanswerable case for wholesale reform of what is increasingly a sleazy institution.