House of Lords: ex-Tory ministers Philip Hammond and Gavin Barwell had less than 10% attendance last year

Two former Conservative ministers are among a number of peers who’ve been appointed to the House of Lords in recent years that attended fewer than 10% of sitting days last year.

Philip Hammond and Gavin Barwell, who were both elevated to the Lords by Theresa May, attended on just three days and four days respectively last year.  Evgeny Lebedev, a controversial Boris Johnson appointee, attended only once last year, while cricketer Ian Botham came to the House twice.

It comes after Boris Johnson’s list of resignation honours has been widely criticised for including former staff members implicated in the Partygate scandal and young people with relatively little political or public service experience.

Labour has said it would replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber, and Keir Starmer has claimed he will not produce a resignation honours list, although The Times reports that the party has drawn up plans to appoint dozens of new peers if elected.

Willie Sullivan, Senior Director of Campaigns at the Electoral Reform Society, said: “The last few weeks have underscored that the way we choose who sits in the House of Lords is not fit for purpose. Seats in parliament should not be handed out by prime ministers as jobs-for-life to their friends and donors.

No contributions to House of Lords last year

Of the 119 peers who’ve been appointed to the Lords since 2016 and had taken their seats by the start of last year, there were 16 who attended less than 10% of sitting days throughout 2022. Some have other official roles which explain their absence, like Lord Llewellyn who is the UK’s ambassador to Italy, and one of those with a low attendance, former Labour MP Frank Field, has been seriously ill since late 2021.

There is no obligation to attend the Lords after being appointed, but due to the important role the House of Lords plays in scrutinising legislation and holding the government to account, campaigners say those who enter the Lords should engage as much as possible.

Both major parties have been criticised in the past for appointing people to the Lords as a reward for political loyalty, rather than their suitability for the role or their contribution to public life.

Former Chancellor Philip Hammond, who was appointed to the Lords by Boris Johnson in 2020, only came to the House of Lords on three occasions last year. Lord Hammond’s last spoken contribution in the House came in August 2021 during a debate on Afghanistan - it was one of only three spoken contributions in that year. He last filed a written question in February 2021.

He did not take part in any votes throughout 2022. He has however been present to vote on a number of occasions so far this year, having registered 12 votes across four days.

Hammond’s register of interests entry shows he currently has a number of directorships and seven jobs, generally as an advisor, with clients including the Kuwait Investment Office. He is also the Chair of cryptocurrency trading firm Copper Technologies, in which he holds a $15 million stake.

While he has not registered his exact earnings for each role, the job advising the Bahraini government netted Hammond £274,525 in 2021/2022, and it was reported last year that his consulting firm, Matrix Partners, generated profits of almost £1 million in the year to March 2022.

Tom Brake, director of standards campaign group Unlock Democracy, said: “Getting a peerage isn’t a bauble or a trinket. Peers are appointed to carry out the serious task of reviewing and amending often seriously flawed legislation. If they are not up to the task they should do the right thing and resign from the House of Lords.”

‘We need to replace the House of Lords’

Former minister and adviser to Theresa May was appointed to the Lords by the former PM in 2019. Having attended the HoL on just four occasions this year, Lord Barwell has voted just once and has not spoken since November 2020. He has never filed a written question.

Lord Barwell has been on leave from the House of Lords since February 2023, for undisclosed reasons. As a result he is not required to update his entry in the register of members interests. However, an archived version of the entry from November 2021 shows that he was a director of his own consulting firm, Gavin Barwell Consulting Limited, which “provides advice on current affairs and UK public policy specialising on housing”.

He was also listed as a non-executive director of Clarion Housing Group, the much-criticised housing association which has been subject to a number of investigations into poor conditions on their estates by the media and the housing ombudsman.

In February, the Lords Commissioner for Standards concluded an investigation into Lord Barwell’s conduct, finding that he was in breach of the code of conduct as he had not publicly registered all his company’s clients.

According to Companies House filings, Barwell still holds these directorships and was also made a director of Northstar Advice Limited, a consultancy firm which was set up in February this year by Barwell and former Conservative political advisor Peter Hill.

Sullivan, from Electoral Reform Society, added: “More and more peers are being stuffed into the Lords even though it already has around 800 members, making it the second largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress. This also places the UK in the embarrassing position of having a majority unelected parliament.

“This is why we need to replace the current Lords with a smaller, elected chamber, where the people of this country, not former prime ministers, decide who shapes the laws we all live under.”

Other peers with a particularly low attendance record for last year include controversial appointee Evgeny Lebedev, cricketer Ian Botham and longtime Conservative donor Michael Spencer. They attended one, two and 13 days respectively.