Shamed, the peer who put himself on furlough

A FRONTBENCH peer was forced to apologise yesterday after he was accused of ‘milking the taxpayer’ by furloughing himself while claiming the daily House of Lords allowance.

Liberal Democrat Lord Fox, 62, said he had started to repay the money received from the Government’s job retention scheme and would repay the rest.

‘I recognise my error in judgement and I apologise,’ he said yesterday. ‘I have already begun to repay the money I received as part of the furlough scheme and intend to repay the full amount as soon as possible.’

The Lib Dem spokesman for business, pictured, had already received his first month’s wage subsidy, of about £1,000, from the Government, it is understood.

His apology came hours after it emerged he used the Government’s job retention scheme to pay himself as the owner of a strategic communications company.

He was also taking the £ 162 daily allowance for his work in the Lords, which is being conducted via Zoom during the lockdown.

In addition, he also has £100,000 in his company and owns two homes worth more than £ 2million, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Asked earlier whether having his private income paid by the state as well as taking the Lords’ stipend was greedy, he told the newspaper on Wednesday: ‘I don’t think conflating the two is even logical. It’s what many companies are doing … furloughing their employees.

‘If HMRC has thought it was ineligible for me to have applied for that, then they would have said so.’

But his move was condemned by MPs. Tory Robert Halfon said: ‘It is incredible that, when my residents in Harlow are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, this peer seems to want to milk the taxpayer both through the Lords allowance and the furlough scheme.

‘The Chancellor needs to nip this in the bud and make sure this is not allowed.’

Former universities minister Chris Skidmore tweeted: ‘Time to furlough his peerage.’ Sir Iain Duncan Smith added: ‘It’s a bit rum, furloughing yourself while being a legislator.’

Lord Fox is the owner and sole employee of Vulpes Advisory. Accounts at Companies House show he has access to more than £100,000 in his Vulpes bank account.

Asked why he did not use this, he said: ‘I’m hoping to tide the business over… to relaunch it.’

Lord Fox has a house in Windsor, worth as much as £1.9million, and a home in east London. He was awarded a peerage in 2014 and founded Vulpes Advisory in 2016. Asked why he furloughed himself, he said: ‘Because the business is absolutely moribund.’