Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues that the cash-for-influence scandal is evidence that the House of Lords requires major reform – and a police investigation. You can read it in full here, but here’s an excerpt:
There are no adequate safeguards within the House of Lords to bring the matter to justice, as there is no easy means of suspending or expelling peers. Unlike the Commons, which was cattle-prodded into reform by Tory sleaze in the 1990s, the Lords has never had a crisis. … That is an important reason why the police should investigate the case. If this report is confirmed by the tapes or by police interviews, it seems to me that the actions are not merely a breach of the Lords’ own rules banning paid advocacy but may also be in breach of the common law offence of bribery.
This case must ring alarm bells in the Lords, and cause their lordships to bring their quaint customs into the 21st century. The house needs root and branch reform, including direct elections to give them a mandate to back up their revising role. Interests should be properly and fully declared, including the amount paid every year, which is currently secret. If members of the upper house transgress the rules, there must be procedures to suspend and banish them short of an act of parliament.
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