The Conservative Party has been accused of “corruption” and Scotland Yard are being urged to launch a police investigation amid damning claims Tory donors can “pay £3m for a seat in the House of Lords.”
The Sunday Times found through an investigation that of the last 16 party treasurers all but one were offered a seat in the Lord after giving a £3m donation to the Tory party.
The Sunday Times quoted a former chairman that “the truth is the entire political establishment knows this happens and they do nothing about it.
“The most telling line is, once you pay your £3m, you get your peerage.”
However the “cash for honours” has been defended by the Environment Secretary as he said their expertise makes them “valuable” as they have been “successful in business.”
George Eustice said, “They are philanthropists who give huge amounts to charity, who have been very successful in business and, therefore, on those grounds ought to be considered for the Lords.”
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News, “I don’t think that someone who happens to have been an extremely good businessman and has made a great deal of money through business activity, usually also an enormous amount of philanthropy as well, those are the sorts of people who are across our country, amazing people of all political colours that they should be barred from going to the House of Lords because they have made a lot of money, employed many, many thousands of people, run incredible businesses at their own risk, that that somehow is a bar.
“That’s not the case.
“Those who choose to put themselves forward in political environments, as well as their business and philanthropic ones, will go through the process just like anyone else, and we want a rich mix in the House of Lords of voices with experience of all the sectors of our country.”
Senior SNP MP Pete Wishart said, “The Metropolitan Police should launch a fresh cash for honours investigation to determine whether a criminal offence has been committed.
“It is utterly appalling that so many millionaire Tory party donors have been handed life peerages by Boris Johnson and his predecessors.”
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