THE creation of more than a dozen new Lords – including a Tory MSP who is joining the Scotland Office – shows a “collapse of restraint” at Westminster, campaigners have warned.
A list of new life peers was published late on Friday by Downing Street as MPs were on holiday.
It includes donors to the Tory party and the youngest ever member of the House of Lords.
Donald Cameron, previously a Scottish Conservatives MSP for the Highlands and Islands, has been given a peerage so he can take up a position with the Scotland Office as parliamentary under secretary of state.
It means he will be the second unelected Lord Cameron taking up a Westminster post under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – after former prime minister David Cameron’s elevation in November last year.
READ MORE: Stephen Flynn: No SNP MPs will enter House of Lords under my watch
The former Tory MSP’s appointment was criticised by SNP MP Tommy Sheppard, who has campaigned for the abolition of the House of Lords.
He said giving up an elected seat in the Scottish Parliament to join the House of Lords "sums up the Tories' contempt for democracy and our devolved parliament".
Eight other nominations by the Tories include Paul Goodman, a former Tory MP and editor of the Tory news site ConservativeHome.
Tory treasurer Stuart Marks, who has donate nearly £120,000 to the party since 2013 has become a Lord along with former Morgan Stanley executive Franck Petitgas, who is Sunak’s business and investment adviser and has donated £35,000 to the party.
Disability rights campaigner Rosa Monckton, serial entrepreneur and former Local Government Association chairman James Jamieson were also among those chosen by Sunak.
Also given a peerage is barrister Charles Banner KC, who made headlines in 2022 when he was removed from a BA flight following an argument with cabin crew over his children’s nanny being downgraded from business to economy.
Labour has four new peers, including journalist and political commentator Ayesha Hazarika and John Hannett, former leader of the shopworkers union Usdaw.
Sir Keir Starmer recently U-turned on a pledge to replace the upper chamber of the Westminster parliament in the first five years after taking power.
The list also includes one new Plaid Cymru peer – and at the age of 27 Carmen Smith will become the youngest ever peer.
The unelected House of Lords has about 800 members, compared with the 650 capped number of MPs in the House of Commons.
The latest appointments come after criticism of Boris Johnson’s exit honours as a “catalogue of cronies”, while Liz Truss’s included 11 nominations of mainly political supporters and former aides, despite her brief 49 days in office.
READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: The SNP must keep opposing the House of Lords
Willie Sullivan, senior director campaigns for the Electoral Reform Society, said: “The sight of the bloated House of Lords being stuffed with yet even more peers to hand jobs-for-life to party donors and supporters will only further corrode public trust in politics.
“At around 800 members, the Lords is already the second largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.
“This latest honours list only highlights the collapse of restraint we are witnessing at Westminster when it comes to creating new peerages and just how unsustainable the current unelected, unlimited Lords has become.
“The Lords urgently needs to be reformed and replaced with a smaller elected chamber, with a set number of members, where the people of this country, not prime ministers, decide who sits in Parliament making the laws we all live under.”
SNP MP Sheppard said: “Donald Cameron should be ashamed, but then again giving up an elected seat in the Scottish Parliament to join the undemocratic House of Lords sums up the Tories' contempt for democracy and our devolved parliament.
“With moves like this we’re reminded that under this Westminster system there’ll be no end anytime soon to the unelected second house which serves only to make a mockery of the idea the UK is a functioning democracy.
“And with Labour’s broken promises and empty rhetoric on the House of Lords it’s clear there is no alternative to a status quo that was outdated even a century ago.
“Only a vote for the SNP at the next election can make Scotland Tory free and ensure we have MPs who’ll stand up for Scotland’s values and against the House of Lords.”
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