Fresh row with Conservatives amid report of £3m donors getting seats in the House of Lords

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Labor is ramping up pressure on corruption amid reports that the Conservative Party has been offering nobles of the House of Lords to wealthy benefactors as a “reward” for large donations.

The report, from the Sunday Times and OpenDemocracy, says wealthy recipients “appear to be guaranteeing the nobility if they take on the temporary role as party treasurer and increase their private donations in excess of £3 million.”

It also quoted party sources as saying that there is a “tradition” of conservative prime ministers distributing nobles to party treasurers.

There was also widespread speculation in Westminster that Owen Patterson, who resigned as MP for North Shropshire on Thursday in the face of suspension for “egregious” breaches of the lobbying rules, could be himself on the Gents side.

Labor said the report highlighted a “cash-for-access culture” in the Conservative Party, and Sir Keir Starmer wrote to the body that considers nominations for peers to say that Mr Patterson should not be given the rank of gentry if Downing Street recommended one.

In a letter to Lord Pew, Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Committee, Sir Keir said it would “undermine confidence in the integrity of Parliament” if Mr Patterson became Lord.

According to a Sunday Times report, in the past two decades, all but the most recent of the party’s 16 treasurers have been offered a seat in the House of Lords.

It added that 22 of the party’s main financial backers, who gave £54m to the party, including nine donor trustees, had also been offered seats since 2010.

A former party chief told the Sunday Times: “The truth is that the entire political establishment knows this is happening and they do nothing about it… The most telling line is that as soon as you pay £3m you get your rank.”

However, there is no indication that any of the donors mentioned in the investigation requested, received a promise, were directed, or were offered to pay any particular amount for the honor.

On Saturday, the former prime minister, Sir John Major, said Patterson’s rank of gentry would be “a little unusual” as he launched a fierce attack on the “shameful” actions of the Johnson government, arguing that it was “perhaps politically corrupt”.

An investigation by Catherine Stone, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, found that Patterson repeatedly lobbied on behalf of two companies that pay him more than £100,000 a year – Randox and Lyn’s Country Foods.

Patterson resigned after Johnson abandoned a plan that would have brought his case – and the parliamentary standards system – for review by a Tory-led committee.

Former Minister Caroline Knox – a vocal critic of the prime minister – said in the Sunday Mirror: “If my mailing bag is anything to go through, the public thinks the Prime Minister’s decision to spin around his carriage and attack Catherine Stone is really well and smelly. And she is.”

The Independent has reached out to the Conservative Party for comment. However, a spokesperson told the Sunday Times: “We do not believe that successful businessmen and philanthropists who contribute to causes and political parties should be excluded from sitting in the legislature.”

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