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| Cameron's Tory donor peers have poor Lords attendance records | |
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| A string of Conservative donors granted peerages under David Cameron have poor speaking and attendance records in the House of Lords, Guardian research has found. | A string of Conservative donors granted peerages under David Cameron have poor speaking and attendance records in the House of Lords, Guardian research has found. |
| Six of the donor peers have contributed just a handful of times to debate in the chamber since entering the Lords, and one has already retired, allowing him to keep the title without doing any work. | |
| The figures will raise questions about whether peerages are being handed out effectively as titles without the expectation of a significant contribution to the work of parliament. | The figures will raise questions about whether peerages are being handed out effectively as titles without the expectation of a significant contribution to the work of parliament. |
| They come as Theresa May, the prime minister, and Patrick McLoughlin, the new Tory chairman, face fresh calls to reopen talks on reforming funding of political parties, after Cameron was criticised for recommending honours to party donors, aides and pro-EU campaigners. | |
| Lord Bew, the chair of the public standards watchdog, urged the main parties to embark on new talks to reform political funding. | |
| Bew, a politics professor and chairman of the committee on standards in public life, said he would be making a fresh push for progress, after cross-party talks aimed at ending big money influencing politics failed under Cameron’s premiership. | |
| The chair wrote after last year’s general election to Cameron, Harriet Harman, then acting Labour leader, and other party leaders, asking them to get back around the table and address the issue of big money influencing politics. A year on from that call, Bew told the Guardian he would be writing to the new party leaders, including May and Jeremy Corbyn, calling on them to restart the talks aimed at bringing greater integrity to the funding of political parties. | |
| He is issuing the reminder as his committee prepares to publish new figures and a report this week on party funding. | |
| Bew said the debate was fractious and difficult to resolve but there was some opportunity for progress, starting with small areas of agreement between the parties. | |
| “There are controversies about the Sunday Times story [on honours]. But the big question that links it all up is this one on party funding,” he said. “The British people themselves think you would only give money to a party unless you expect a peerage or some such goody but they also believe they should not have to contribute a penny towards funding political parties – which would solve the problem.” | |
| At least one Conservative party donor, Michael Spencer, is believed to have been blocked from getting a peerage during a last-ditch attempt by Cameron to secure him entry to the Lords. | |
| During his time as prime minister, Cameron recommended at least a dozen party donors to sit in the House of Lords, triggering persistent accusations of cronyism. | During his time as prime minister, Cameron recommended at least a dozen party donors to sit in the House of Lords, triggering persistent accusations of cronyism. |
| Anthony Bamford, who had personally given more than £100,000 while associated companies provided £4.7m, has spoken just twice in the main chamber since joining in 2013. In the year to February – the last month for which data are available – he is registered as having attended five times. | |
| Michael Bishop, who became Lord Glendonbrook and has given the party more than £1m, has made just one contribution on the floor of the Lords and is registered as turning up just 16 times in the year to February. | Michael Bishop, who became Lord Glendonbrook and has given the party more than £1m, has made just one contribution on the floor of the Lords and is registered as turning up just 16 times in the year to February. |
| Other examples include George Magan, who gave the party almost £1.5m. He has spoken twice since joining the Lords in 2011. Robert Edmiston, another major donor whose companies have contributed around £4.5m, spoke just five times before retiring as a working peer four years later, while being allowed to keep his title. | |
| A minority of peers who are also major Tory donors have made significant contributions to the House of Lords. These include Dolar Popat, who has given the party more than £200,000, but became whip and has made more than 340 speeches in the Lords since 2010. | |
| May has declined to block new honours recommended by Cameron as one of his lasts acts as prime minister, as Downing Street has said it would set a bad precedent. But she is now coming under pressure to help reform politics by committing to new talks on party funding. | |
| Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, issued a challenge to the new prime minister to get back round the table. “With a new leader and a new Tory party chairman, I now challenge them to join me to restart the cross-party talks on funding for political parties,” he said. | |
| “Big money from union barons and big money from rich donors must not continue to warp our politics. This whole sorry saga of Cameron’s cronies shows how we must kick big money out of politics.” | |
| Will Brett, head of campaigns at the Electoral Reform Society, also called for the parties to start negotiating again. | Will Brett, head of campaigns at the Electoral Reform Society, also called for the parties to start negotiating again. |
| Related: From Lloyd George to the lavender list: the history of honours scandals | Related: From Lloyd George to the lavender list: the history of honours scandals |
| “The big donor culture of politics is a dark cloud that hangs over our democracy. People see the sums of money being donated from single sources and they understandably start to question the integrity of our political parties,” he said. | “The big donor culture of politics is a dark cloud that hangs over our democracy. People see the sums of money being donated from single sources and they understandably start to question the integrity of our political parties,” he said. |
| “And of course that’s not helped by the various cash-for-honours scandals which seem to come around like clockwork. Our party funding system is bringing politics into disrepute. | “And of course that’s not helped by the various cash-for-honours scandals which seem to come around like clockwork. Our party funding system is bringing politics into disrepute. |
| “We desperately need to clean up the way parties finance themselves, starting with a cap on donations, a lower spending limit for campaigning and an increased element of public funding. It’s high time that party leaders get round the negotiating table and bring Britain into line with most other developed democracies – where parties are funded cleanly and transparently.” | “We desperately need to clean up the way parties finance themselves, starting with a cap on donations, a lower spending limit for campaigning and an increased element of public funding. It’s high time that party leaders get round the negotiating table and bring Britain into line with most other developed democracies – where parties are funded cleanly and transparently.” |
| A Conservative spokesman signalled the party could be willing to make some progress, after the stalemate of the last parliament. | |
| He said: “The numerous inter-party party funding talks over the last decade have failed to reach any consensus – they were too focused on complex and controversial structural changes. Neither is there any public demand for more state funding of political parties. During the Trade Union Bill, the Conservative party suggested reforms to promote small-scale fundraising that would command broad support, rather than trying and failing to achieve an all-or-nothing, ‘big bang’ solution.” | |
| The talks would also need to involve Labour, which was set to lose millions of pounds in funding under reforms proposed by Cameron’s Conservative government, but the party did not have a comment on Tuesday about whether it was willing to re-engage. |