'There is a concerning correlation between people who receive peerages and those who donate to political parties'
If you ever needed an example of just why the Lords is not fit for purpose in its current form, then look no further than the latest revelations that Boris Johnson has put Tory donors into the Lords at twice the rate of any other prime minister in the last decade, with the party taking £17m from peers he appointed.
Shameless Johnson nominated 50 peers during his time as PM, with 14 either already party donors or who went on to donate money.
The findings were made by openDemocracy, which analysed all of the 276 appointments to the House of Lords between 2013 until the start of 2023, and looked at the background and political donations of each appointee.
The latest revelations will once more give rise to accusations of cronyism and further erode trust in our democracy, showing how the current set up in the Lord is not fit for purpose, with the second chamber packed to the brim with donors and party loyalists.
Willie Sullivan, senior director of campaigns for the Electoral Reform Society, told openDemocracy that it was time to do away with the ‘untransparent system of Lords appointments’.
He said: “There is a concerning correlation between people who receive peerages and those who donate to political parties, and this creates damaging optics that corrodes trust in our democracy.
“It is time to do away with the untransparent system of Lords appointments and replace it with a smaller democratic upper chamber, where the people of this country – not former prime ministers – choose who sits in Parliament shaping our laws.”
Among Johnson’s appointments are businessmen Michael Spencer and Michael Hintze, as well as multimillionaire banker Peter Cruddas.
Out of the £51.8m donated by Lords appointees by the parties that nominated them, the vast majority – £46.8m – of that was donated to the Conservative Party.
Below is a list compiled by openDemocracy of the 15 biggest Tory Lords-appointee party donors:
Michal Farmer (£9.5m)
Michal Spencer (£7.9m)
Anthony Bamford (£5.5m)
Michal Hintze (£4.7m)
David Brownlow (£3.56m)
Peter Cruddas (£3.54m)
Alexander Fraser (£3.51m)
James Lupton (£3.48m)
Rami Ranger (£1.59m)
Zameer Choudrey (£1.38m)
Zac Goldsmith (£600,753)
Ranbir Singh Suri (£344,135)
Jitesh Gadhia (£246,990)
Howard Leigh (£226,931)
Aamer Ahmad Sarfraz (£187,250)
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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