Earl of Shrewsbury faces suspension from Lords over lobbying claims

A hereditary peer is facing suspension from the House of Lords for breaking lobbying rules.

The Earl of Shrewsbury was found by the Lords Conduct Committee to have approached ministers on behalf of a company marketing Covid-19 sanitiser products, which he worked for.

The committee recommended he should be suspended for nine months, which is subject to a vote by the upper house.

Lord Shrewsbury has said he did not realise his actions broke the rules.

The Earl of Shrewsbury is one of the few remaining hereditary peers in the Lords and was affiliated with the Conservatives until October but now sits as a non-party crossbench peer.

He was paid £57,000 by healthcare company SpectrumX for his work as a consultant over a period of 19 months between 2020 and 2022.

In 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, the firm was seeking regulatory approval for products including hand sanitisers and a walk-in disinfectant tunnel.

The peer approached ministers, including then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock to promote the company's tunnel in return for a £3,000 monthly retainer, the committee's report found.

He referred himself to the commissioner following allegations about his conduct in relation to the company in the Sunday Times.

Lord Shrewsbury has argued his work for SpectrumX was "openly commercial dealing", that he declared his interest as an adviser to the company and never sought to "influence policy".

The committee accepted that he did not act with "deliberate dishonesty" and did not realise his actions broke the rules.

However, it found "clear" breaches of the Lords' code of conduct by seeking "to profit from membership of the House" and providing parliamentary advice or exercising parliamentary influence in return for payment.

Separately, Baroness Goudie was also found to have breached the code "by agreeing to provide parliamentary advice in return for payment" and for breaking rules on the use of the House's facilities.

The committee has recommended she is suspended from the Lords for six months and Labour has also suspended her from the parliamentary party.

The breaches relate to her work for ecoLegacy in 2016 and 2017.

She was paid €20,000 (£17,454) over a 10-month period as an adviser for the company. the Lords committee said in its report.

As part of her role, she advised the company on who to approach about their work and offered to book a room on the estate to hold meetings, although ultimately no room was reserved and Baroness Goudie did not directly approach parliamentarians on the company's behalf.

She also commissioned research by the Lords Library on behalf of the company, in breach of the code.

The peer has acknowledged she had an interest in the company during the period and has apologised for failing to register that interest until April 2017.

However, the committee said she refused to accept her conduct had breached any other aspect of the code.

In response to the report, Baroness Goudie said: "Six-and-a-half years after the alleged events, I was accused by a former colleague of 'paid advocacy' and a late declaration of my interests.

"I totally refute the first allegation on which the commissioner made no finding and sincerely apologise for my late declaration in 2016, before which time I had used the Lords Library on one occasion to check facts relevant to my interests."

The upper chamber is due to vote on whether to approve the recommendations next month.