loans for peerages

   The names given by media commentators and politicians to a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the alleged connection between political donations and the awarding of life peerages. The issue of cash for peerages famously featured during the early-twentieth-century premiership of David Lloyd George. It subsequently resurfaced during the Conservative Government of John Major, when allegations were made that those who contributed generously to the party were granted political honours.

   In March 2006, several men nominated for life peerages by Prime Minister Tony Blair were rejected by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. It was later revealed they had loaned large amounts of money to the governing Labour Party, at the suggestion of Labour fundraiser Lord Levy. Suspicion was aroused that the peerages were a quid pro quo for the loans. The incident was referred to the Metropolitan Police by a Scottish National Party Member of Parliament as a breach of the law against selling honours. Since then various members of the Labour, the Conservative and the Liberal Democrat parties were questioned. More dramatically, Labour’s Lord Levy and Ruth Turner, a key Downing Street aide, were arrested and later released on bail.

   The original focus was on whether the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 or the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 had been broken. Latterly the focus was on an alleged conspiracy to frustrate or even pervert the course of justice. At the end of the long police inquiry a dossier was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided that no charges would be brought.

   See also: life peer, Life Peerages Act