EIGHT disgraced peers, including a convicted criminal, are continuing to claim their £300 daily allowance to attend the House of Lords.
Lord Taylor of Warwick was convicted of false accounting after lying about where he lived to claim more than £11,000 fraudulently from the taxpayer. The former Tory peer was also suspended from the house for a year in 2011. Last year he claimed £31,200 for 104 days in parliament.
Lord Paul, the former Labour peer who was temporarily suspended in 2010 after it was ruled he had been “utterly unreasonable, and demonstrated gross irresponsibility” in his expenses claims, claimed £36,600 in daily allowances last year.
Despite logging an impressive 122 days in parliament, the millionaire businessman voted on only four occasions out of 60 and spoke in the chamber only twice.
Taylor and Paul are among 23 peers to have been issued with reprimands for misconduct in the past decade, according to an official list provided by the Lords’ privileges and conduct committee, which oversees the rules of the upper chamber. In most instances the breach of code relates to a failure to register an interest, and results in the peer making a formal apology. However, in the nine most serious cases the peers were suspended from the house.
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Baroness Uddin was suspended from 2010 until 2012 after The Sunday Times revealed she had falsely claimed £125,349 from the taxpayer. The former Labour peer has since returned and attended the Lords on 126 days in the last parliamentary year. For this she claimed £37,800 in public funds under the members’ voluntary daily allowance scheme.
Lord Hanningfield, also jailed for false accounting, was the only one of the nine previously suspended peers not to claim last year. He was, however, unable to attend parliament as the result of a second suspension handed down in 2014 for abusing the daily allowance scheme.
Lord Truscott, who was suspended in 2009 over the cash-for-influence scandal, claimed £37,800 to attend. He voted 17 times out of possible 60 and spoke nine times. The independent Labour peer, who is based in Somerset, also claimed £9,003 in travel costs.Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn were caught in an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times, offering to influence legislation for a fee.
Lord Laird, another peer caught by reporters from this newspaper seeking to profit from his position and suspended in 2013, defended claiming £37,500 in the daily allowance. “I regularly contribute on issues on which I feel passionate about, such as prisons, but only vote on matters which directly affect Northern Ireland,” he said.
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The Ulster peer described the £300 a day claim as a “necessity” because of the cost of being in London.
Peers, who do not receive a salary, are entitled to claim £300, or a lower rate of £150, for every sitting day they attend instead of making expenses claims. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing or breach of the rules by these peers for claiming.
Paul, who has described the decision to suspend him as “disgraceful”, said his low participation in votes did not give the “complete picture” of his contribution on the 122 days he attended: “I only speak and vote on issues very, very close to my heart. I do what everyone does. You listen to debates that are of interest to you and apply that information to be able to contribute to society. I listen to economic debates and talk to other business people on the outside.
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“I am also a university chancellor and use knowledge I gain on the discussion of education to see what I can do to improve those universities.”
The other peers either could not be reached for comment or did not respond.
Lord Taylor of Warwick has previously argued everyone deserves a second chance. “I’ve apologised and want to make amends by doing good work in public life,” he said.
Additional reporting: Daisy Collingwood and Robert Bruce