Conduct Of Lord Blencathra

EDM number 263 in 2014-15, proposed by Paul Flynn on 15/07/2014.
Categorised under the topic of Members of the Lords.

That this House believes that the lenient punishment of Lord Blencathra proves that the Lords is not fit to discipline its members; notes that Lord Blencathra admitted at a hearing in 2012 to lobbying for the Cayman Islands for payment of £12,000 a month but explained that he was lobbying the Government not Parliament; observes that he failed then to reveal the existence of a contract he had signed; is astonished that the Lords Commissioner for Standards, at a second hearing held when the contract details were leaked, accepted Lord Blencathra's assurance that although he had signed a contract for lobbying he had no intention of carrying out lobbying on behalf of the tax haven; congratulates The Independent and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for publishing the secret contract that exposed an egregious breach of the rule that forbids legislators from hiring out their services; and further believes that the failure to suspend Lord Blencathra from the service of the Lords will further deepen public cynicism on the conduct of parliamentarians.

This motion has been signed by a total of 7 MPs.