Lords hit by scandals

Most infamously former Tory chairman Lord Jeffrey Archer was not stripped of his place in the Lords after being sentenced to a four year term for perjury in 2001.

The case centred around his denials of seeing a prostitute Monica Coghlan when he successfully sued the Daily Star for revealing the story in 1987.

But Lord Archer is not the only peer to have been tainted with scandal.

Lord John Taylor of Warwick, another Tory peer, was recently sentenced to 12 months in prison for fiddling his expense.

Labour peer Lord Hanningfield was also jailed for nine months over false expenses claims.

Both peers will be allowed to sit in the Lords again once they have paid back their expenses.

But one Labour peer who has been welcomed back is the Scottish Lord Mike Watson who was sentenced to 16 months in jail for fire raising at the Scottish Politician of the Year awards in 2004.

However, there have been far more infamous and colourful characters in the history of the House of Lords, not least from those who inherited their titles.

Perhaps the most famous of these is Lord Lucan who was known to his friends as “lucky” but disappeared after the brutal murder of his children’s nanny Sandra Rivett in 1974.

But members of the Lords have sometimes left their most disastrous decisions to military matters.

One of Lord Lucan’s predecessors and his brother-in-law the Earl of Cardighan were perhaps the most noted pair for their role in the charge of the light brigade at the Russian guns at the battle of BalaAs clava in the Crimean War in 1854.

The military disaster was essentially a result of the rivalry between the two who hated one another.

But as far as infamy goes on political decisions few have garnered more hatred than the 1st Duke of Sutherland who was one of the key figures behind the Highland Clearances in the 18th century in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden.

In terms of policy bishops have in recent years been seen as being on the side of poor and oppressed, but it was not always the case. Between 1828 and 1848 the then Archbishop of Canterbury William Howley made sure the Lords Spiritual opposed all reforming legislation including the HGreat Reform Act in 1832 which ended rotten boroughs and widened the voting franchise and the emancipation of Catholics.

But perhaps the biggest controversy has surrounded the idea of cash for peerages.

Former Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd-George hired Maundy Gregory to sell peerages to raise party funds.

This led to the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.

The trick was then allegedly taken up by Lord Levy for Labour although he was not charged despite a complaint being made by the SNP Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil.

Some of the best known scandals of the Lords involved sex and illicit relationships as Tory Leader of the House Lord Strathclyde recently found to his cost as did Labour Lord David Triesman who resigned as head of England’s World Cup bid as a result.

But neither of these peers came anywhere near the scandal caused by the colourful 19th century former Prime Minister Lord Palmerston and the affair of the Queen’s lady in waiting.

In 1864 he attempted to seduce Lady Dacre not only for sexual reasons but in an effort to improve his standing with Queen Victoria.

The scandal simply deepened the Queen’s dislike of him.