The government announced 13 new peers on Friday evening, eight of them Conservatives, including a major donor to the Conservative party who was reportedly on Boris Johnson’s original resignation honours list. Stuart Marks, a technology entrepreneur and senior treasurer for the Conservatives, has been given a life peerage after donating £119,500 personally and £56,500 through his company. Other new Tory peers include Paul Goodman, Rosa Monckton, and two senior councillors. Labour nominated four people for peerages, and Plaid Cymru nominated one peer. The new nominations bring the size of the Lords to nearly 800, making it one of the largest legislative chambers in the world. Despite recommendations to reduce its size, the upper house continues to grow with new peers appointed by prime ministers. For example, newspaper proprietor Evgeny Lebedev, who was made a peer in 2019, has attended only 1.25% of possible sittings and has spoken for less than 10 minutes in total.
2024-02-09 17:12:25
Original from www.theguardian.com