Ex-Tory peer should be suspended for lobbying on behalf of medical firm during COVID pandemic, parliamentary committee says

A parliamentary committee has recommended that a peer should be suspended from the House of Lords for nine months for lobbying ministers on behalf of a company seeking regulatory approval for its COVID-19 sanitisation products.

The Earl of Shrewsbury, who was a Conservative peer until October, was found to have made £57,000 lobbying for the medical company called SpectrumX during the coronavirus pandemic.

An investigation by the House of Lords authorities concluded that Lord Shrewsbury, whose full name is Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the lobbying rules in the Lords introduced in 2009 in the wake of the “cash for amendments” scandal.

The inquiry focused on his work for SpectrumX, which “in 2020 was seeking regulatory approval for various COVID-19 sanitiser products, including hand sanitisers, and a walk-in disinfectant tunnel known as the SpectriPOD”.

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The report issued by the House of Lords Conduct Committee on Friday described Lord Shrewsbury as having a “lucrative” relationship with the company, in which he made £3,000 a month for 19 months – totalling £57,000 in income.

The Sunday Times reported in June this year “that Lord Shrewsbury had written emails to SpectrumX in which he represented that he would meet with various ministers and officials to discuss and promote SpectrumX’s spectriPOD system in return for being paid a monthly retainer by the company”.

The newspaper said Lord Shrewsbury, who at the time was a serving Conservative whip in the House of Lords, boasted that his access would enable him to get the products in front of ministers and an MP working for Boris Johnson in Number 10.

Then-health secretary Matt Hancock was among those he wrote to, asking for the Department for Health to “engage” with SpectrumX.

The Lords’ commissioner on standards found the earl had breached rules on “providing parliamentary advice or services in return for payment or reward”.

The hereditary peer appealed the decision, but had this thrown out by the investigation.

A report said: “We accept that Lord Shrewsbury did not act with deliberate dishonesty, and that he did not realise that his actions were in breach of the code.

“But it is clear to us that his conduct was in breach of paragraph nine, and his ignorance of the rules, first agreed by the House in late 2009, does not justify us in upholding his appeal.”

The Earl of Shrewsbury has been contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, the House of Lords authorities also found Labour’s Baroness Goudie to have breached the Lords code of conduct by agreeing to provide parliamentary advice in return for payment.

The Lords Conduct Committee ruled: “We recommend that Baroness Goudie be suspended from the service of the House for a period of six months.”

Baroness Goudie has also been contacted for comment.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to abolish the House of Lords in his first term if he is elected prime minister.

Speaking to Sky News earlier this month, the Labour leader confirmed his party “do want to abolish the House of Lords“, adding that he does not think anybody could “defend” the institution.

Asked if it is his hope the House of Lords will be abolished within his first term as prime minister, Sir Keir replied: “Yes, I do.

“Because what I asked when I asked Gordon Brown to set up the commission to do this, I said what I want is recommendations that are capable of being implemented in the first term.”