Wednesday, December 23, 2020
More audacity from Johnson
Does Boris Johnson know where to draw a line? The House of Lords is already the second largest upper chamber in the world, there is cross-party agreement to reduce its membership to 600 over time, and a growing demand to properly democratise it so it ceases being a retirement home for failed and retired politicians and party donors, and yet none of that appears to have captured the Prime Minister's attention.
Instead, he has nominated a further batch of peers, bringing his total to 52 for this year, and taking membership of the Lords to 830. Further he has defied the advice of the Lords Appointments Commission and given a peerage to a former Conservative party co-treasurer.
As the Guardian says, Peter Cruddas, a businessman, philanthropist and Tory donor, was one of 16 people on a list of newly created political peerages. He resigned as Conservative co-treasurer in 2012 after the Sunday Times claimed he was offering access to the prime minister for up to £250,000. A year later Cruddas won £180,000 in damages in a libel action, although that was subsequently reduced to £50,000 after aspects of the original allegations were upheld when the paper appealed.
The paper adds that this appointment came only a month after Johnson essentially ignored the findings of another Whitehall standards regulator when he decided to keep Priti Patel as home secretary despite Alex Allan, his adviser on ministerial standards, concluding she had engaged in behaviour that could be seen as bullying. Allan resigned instead.
And of course, earlier in the year, Johnson was also accused of cronyism when he defended his then chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, after Cummings took his family out of London in what was widely seen as a breach of lockdown rules.
The other bizarre appointment is former Tory MEP, Daniel Hannan, who has spent his career railing against unelected and unrepresentative parliamentary bodies. Now he is a member of one.
The main reason why we don't now have a properly reformed and elected second chamber is because that would mean party leaders could no longer so easily reward their pals by making them Lords. Boris Johnson's actions yesterday have once more proved that to be the case.
Instead, he has nominated a further batch of peers, bringing his total to 52 for this year, and taking membership of the Lords to 830. Further he has defied the advice of the Lords Appointments Commission and given a peerage to a former Conservative party co-treasurer.
As the Guardian says, Peter Cruddas, a businessman, philanthropist and Tory donor, was one of 16 people on a list of newly created political peerages. He resigned as Conservative co-treasurer in 2012 after the Sunday Times claimed he was offering access to the prime minister for up to £250,000. A year later Cruddas won £180,000 in damages in a libel action, although that was subsequently reduced to £50,000 after aspects of the original allegations were upheld when the paper appealed.
The paper adds that this appointment came only a month after Johnson essentially ignored the findings of another Whitehall standards regulator when he decided to keep Priti Patel as home secretary despite Alex Allan, his adviser on ministerial standards, concluding she had engaged in behaviour that could be seen as bullying. Allan resigned instead.
And of course, earlier in the year, Johnson was also accused of cronyism when he defended his then chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, after Cummings took his family out of London in what was widely seen as a breach of lockdown rules.
The other bizarre appointment is former Tory MEP, Daniel Hannan, who has spent his career railing against unelected and unrepresentative parliamentary bodies. Now he is a member of one.
The main reason why we don't now have a properly reformed and elected second chamber is because that would mean party leaders could no longer so easily reward their pals by making them Lords. Boris Johnson's actions yesterday have once more proved that to be the case.
