The row over peerages for Tory donors is yet more proof that radical overhaul is essential – and now is the perfect time
“Britain is not remotely a corrupt country,” declared the prime minister in Glasgow this week. So what did he mean by remotely? He had just been accused of selling peerages to party donors. In 2006, Boris Johnson called such abuses of the House of Lords a “putrefaction … a quintessentially British crime”. Back then it was Tony Blair he was attacking. We know Johnson’s ethics vary depending on the situation – but the hypocrisy of this is still blatant.
Members of the House of Lords must have yawned at headlines that donors who gave £3m to the Conservative party had been offered peerages. What was new? They were all aware that Britain has long been the only democracy in the world where membership of the national parliament is up for sale. This has been the case since David Lloyd George’s day, and is so despite the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act of 1925 having outlawed it. Party leaders simply break the law.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
