House of Lords under fire for dropping rule that once caught out cricket legend and historian
Campaigners have criticised a change to the rules around declarations of interest in the House of Lords as a “retrograde step” which will lead to a “significant loss of transparency”.
Since 2000, peers have had to register a list of “non-financial interests” – which includes declaring unpaid but often important roles like being a director, trustee, or chair of a company, think tank or charity.
But that requirement was dropped in April despite staff concerns.
Tom Brake, director of Unlock Democracy, and a former Liberal Democrat MP, wants to see the decision reversed.
“It’s a retrograde step,” he said. “I think we’ve got a significant loss of transparency and accountability and that is bad news for the public.
“More than 25 years ago, the Committee on Standards in Public Life identified that there was a need for peers to register non-financial interests because that could influence their decisions. I’m confused as to what’s happened in the last 25 years that now means this requirement can be scrapped.
“This process seems to be all about making matters simpler for peers, rather than what the code of conduct is supposed to do, which is to boost the public’s confidence.”
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MPs and peers alike have long faced scrutiny over their interests outside Westminster. File pic
Rules were too ‘burdensome’, say peers
The change was part of an overhaul of the code of conduct which aimed to “shorten and clarify” the rules for peers.
The House of Lords Conduct Committee argued that updating non-financial interests was “disproportionately burdensome” with “minor and inadvertent errors” causing “large numbers of complaints”.
As a result, the register of Lords interests shrunk in size from 432 pages to 275.
MPs have a different code of conduct, which requires them to declare any formal unpaid positions or other non-financial interests which may be an influence.
A source told Sky News there is real concern among some Lords’ staff about the implications of the change.
Non-financial interest declarations have previously highlighted cases where a peer’s involvement in a think tank or lobbying group overlapped with a paid role.
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Protesters disrupt House of Lords
Cricket legend among peers to breach code
There are also examples where a peer’s non-financial interest declaration has prompted an investigation – revealing a financial interest which should have been declared instead.
In 2023, Lord Skidelsky was found to have breached the code after registering his role as chair of a charity’s trustees as a non-financial interest.
Lord Skidelsky. Pic: UK Parliament
The Commissioner for Standards investigated after questions were raised about the charity, the Centre for Global Studies.
He concluded that the charity – which was funded by two Russian businessmen – only existed to support Lord Skidelsky’s work, and had paid his staff’s salaries for over 12 years.
In 2021, Lord Botham – the England cricket legend – was found to have breached the code after registering a non-financial interest as an unpaid company director.
The company’s accounts subsequently revealed he and his wife had benefitted from a director’s loan of nearly £200,000. It was considered a minor breach and he apologised.
Former cricketer Lord Botham. File pic: PA
‘Follow the money’
Lord Eric Pickles, the former chair of the anti-corruption watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, believes focusing on financial interests makes the register more transparent.
“My view is always to follow the money. Everything else on a register is camouflage,” he said.
“Restricting the register to financial reward will give peers little wriggle room. I know this is counterintuitive, but the less there is on the register, the more scrutiny there will be on the crucial things.”
Lord Eric Pickles
‘I was shocked’
The SNP want the House of Lords to be scrapped, and has no peers of its own. Deputy Westminster leader Pete Wishart MP is deeply concerned by the changes.
“I was actually quite horrified and quite shocked,” he said.
“This is an institution that’s got no democratic accountability, it’s a job for life. If anything, members of the House of Lords should be regulated and judged by a higher standard than us in the House of Commons – and what’s happened is exactly the opposite.”
Public confidence in the Lords is already at a low ebb after the PPE controversy surrounding Baroness Michelle Mone, who took a leave of absence in 2022.
Michelle Mone attends the state opening of parliament in 2019. Pic: Reuters
The government has pledged to reform the House of Lords and is currently trying to push through a bill abolishing the 92 remaining hereditary peers, which will return to the House of Commons in September.
But just before recess the bill was amended in the Lords so that they can remain as members until retirement or death. It’s a change which is unlikely to be supported by MPs.
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MPs and peers alike have long faced scrutiny over their interests outside Westminster. File pic
A spokesperson for the House of Lords said: “Maintaining public confidence in the House of Lords is a key objective of the code of conduct. To ensure that, the code includes rigorous rules requiring the registration and declaration of all relevant financial interests held by members of the House of Lords.
“Public confidence relies, above all, on transparency over the financial interests that may influence members’ conduct. This change helps ensure the rules regarding registration of interests are understandable, enforceable and focused on the key areas of public concern.
“Members may still declare non-financial interests in debate, where they consider them directly relevant, to inform the House and wider public.
“The Conduct Committee is appointed to review the code of conduct, and it will continue to keep all issues under review. During its review of the code of conduct, the committee considered written evidence from both Unlock Democracy and Transparency International UK, among others.”
“I’m incredibly patriotic,” says Ross, “I love our flag.”
He’s pulling a trailer loaded with England flags, otherwise known as the flag of St George, and Union flags, while his friends carry a ladder.
They’re heading out to fly flags from lamp posts in his hometown, Lichfield.
The group carried flags to raise around Lichfield
We’re here to spend an evening with them – keen to understand why flags are appearing on streets across England and what people make of it.
As the flags go up, several passing drivers beep and shout their support.
But it isn’t long before a man and woman walk past, visibly annoyed.
“Shameful behaviour,” the woman tells the group.
One of Ross’s group calls back: “Why can’t you be proud?”
“I am proud, but we’re absolutely tripping over from patriotism to an overt display of nationalism,” the man replies.
“There have been many occasions throughout history where the British flag has been adopted by groups that I don’t agree with”.
It’s a tense moment.
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Octavia raises a flag in Lichfield
I ask Ross, 27, if the flying of the flags is timed to coincide with concerns about immigration.
“Yes,” he replies. “My personal stance on it is, yes, this is us saying ‘you’re in our country’, right?
“This is what we stand for, you bow to this flag how we do, right, and you shouldn’t be doing illegal things, and for example, raping the women and committing crimes, which we don’t agree with.”
Ross says there’s nothing wrong with being patriotic
He tells me some of the handful of people he’s with went to the same school as him. But Octavia, the only woman in their group, only met them recently.
“She bumped into us the other day, and now she’s a full-fledged flagger,” Ross says.
Octavia, 27, lifts her jumper to reveal she’s wearing an England flag dress.
“I saw him putting up the flags and I genuinely wondered why,” she says.
“He kind of explained to me, like, we’re protecting people of Britain, we are spreading awareness, that is literally all, and I was really happy to get involved”.
Octavia says she was happy to get involved
As the next flag is being put up, a man walks past and breaks into song.
“No surrender, no surrender, no surrender to the boats coming over,” he sings.
Ross, filming him, thanks him for his “performance”.
Many opinions but few solutions for debate that crosses dividing lines
Over the course of an evening in Lichfield, we struggled to find anyone who didn’t have an opinion on the flags appearing around the town.
Yet we did find people who were reticent to speak on camera, particularly those opposed to the flags being there.
This is a town where around 93% of residents were born in England, according to the census in 2021.
Unlike many British towns and cities, there is little visible evidence of the mass migration this country has experienced in recent decades.
Octavia, the newest recruit to the group of “flaggers” we met, grew up in Leicester, where just under 58% of people were born in England.
After meeting people opposed to the flags in Lichfield, she told me “they’re wealthy, they live in a nice area, they don’t actually have to go through the struggles that everybody else does”.
She then revealed her opposition to migrant hotels is in part because she was once at risk of homelessness and didn’t get state support.
But from what we saw, it would be wrong to conclude that there are obvious dividing lines in this debate.
On both sides, there were people from a range of different backgrounds, young and old.
Some see a display of pure patriotism. To others, it’s blatant nationalism that has to stop.
But in these uneasy times, the removal of any flags has been seized on as a political act that has sparked anger in communities.
A woman sees it all happen and tells us her husband has written to the council to ask for the flags to be removed.
She’s unhappy about how it may make the town feel for some people.
But she doesn’t want to go on camera – or even have her words recorded.
Bob says the number of flags going up has become ‘extreme’
I ask Ross about his political views.
He says he doesn’t belong to any party, but he tells me he supports Tommy Robinson – and had been with him the previous evening.
He got the flags they’re putting up from him.
Further down the street, we meet Bob. He’s just out for dinner. We get talking about the flags.
“It’s not a racist thing just to be wanting to look after your people,” Ross tells him.
Bob agrees, but is concerned about why flags are going up now.
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“It’s become quite extreme,” he says. I ask if he thinks the flag is being used as a racist symbol. “100% yeah, I do,” he says.
But an elderly couple over the road completely disagrees with him. “Of course, we support St George’s flag, we’re British,” the woman says.
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“There’s nothing wrong with showing the English flag,” her husband agrees.
It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t have a view on the flags appearing around the town. We leave Lichfield with a sense that they’re provoking strong feelings on both sides of a very live national debate.
Sir Keir Starmer has defended welcoming the Israeli president to Downing Street as MPs raised concerns about allowing him into the UK.
Sir Keir started Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) by saying “however difficult, the UK must not walk away from a diplomatic solution” to the war in Gaza.
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“We will negotiate and we will strain every sinew, because that is the only way to get the hostages out, to get aid in and to stop the killing,” he told MPs.
The PM said he will be “absolutely clear that we condemn Israel’s action” in bombing Hamas leaders in Qatar, during his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday afternoon.
His visit comes just a day after Israel carried out the strike in Qatar.
The PM added that it would be the “politics of students” not to meet Mr Herzog after the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn gave an impassioned speech against the Israeli president’s visit.
Mr Flynn said: “Would he invite Vladimir Putin into No 10? Would he invite Benjamin Netanyahu into No 10?
“What does it say of this prime minister that he will harbour this man whilst children starve?”
Isaac Herzog is in the UK. File pic
Following Mr Herzog’s visit to Number 10, the Israeli president said: “Britain and Israel are friends, but among friends there are sometimes disagreements.”
He said he “made clear” the UK’s intention to recognise a Palestinian state would “in no way help bring the hostages home, help the Palestinians, or help bring an end to the conflict” – but would instead “embolden extremists”.
The president also told Sir Keir it was “dangerous” to “echo Hamas’s propaganda campaign of starvation in Gaza”.
MPs question Herzog visit
Dozens of MPs from all parties, including Labour, questioned the legal standing of Sir Keir welcoming Mr Herzog.
The Israeli president previously said there are “no innocent civilians in Gaza” and “it is an entire nation that is responsible”.
He was also pictured signing an artillery shell before it was fired towards Gaza in December.
The prime minister’s spokesman said the attack in Qatar is a “clearly unacceptable act” and said it “of course” would be one of the subjects raised with Mr Herzog.
He added Sir Keir will be “clear” with Mr Herzog about the risk of Israel escalating its actions.
Handcuffs not handshakes
New Green Party leader Zack Polanski called for “handcuffs not handshakes” as he said Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit should be waiting inside Number 10 to handcuff Mr Herzog “and take him away for questioning”.
Mr Polanski, who won the Greens leadership election last week and is Jewish, accused Mr Herzog of being “complicit while the Israeli government has engaged in committing genocide in Gaza”.
Zack Polanski. Pic: PA
Israel has continually denied it is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, but last week, the world’s leading association of genocide scholars declared it is. Earlier this week, the UK government concluded Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza.
Herzog is a conduit
The Liberal Democrats tabled an urgent question following PMQs, calling on the foreign secretary to make a statement on the implications of Israel’s strike in Qatar.
Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer took to the despatch box to defend Mr Herzog’s visit, saying: “President Herzog is on a private visit to the UK.
“He is not a functional part of the government; he is an important conduit to raise these concerns.”
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In full: Wednesday’s PMQs
Mr Falconer said the UK is supporting a motion for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday evening and revealed Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is speaking to the E3 (UK, France and Germany) and G7 allies, including the US about Israel’s attack on Qatar.
He added that Ms Cooper met Mr Herzog in the morning and “amongst other things” asked him to ensure greater support from the Israeli government to get children with injuries and students out of Gaza.
As PMQs was taking place, union members at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference unanimously passed a motion to oppose Mr Herzog’s visit.
On Tuesday evening, 60 cross-party MPs and Lords gathered outside parliament to condemn Mr Herzog’s visit after they sent a letter to Sir Keir asking what legal advice the government has received about Mr Herzog’s visit and whether his entry to the UK “is compatible with our obligations under the Genocide Convention”.
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