ANOTHER DODGY ‘HONOURABLE MEMBER’ SHAMES WESTMINSTER
The House of Lords Conduct Committee has published a report on the conduct of Lord Chadlington (John Selwyn Gummer), recommending he be suspended from the House for 12 months.
- Report: The conduct of Lord Chadlington (HTML)
- Report: The conduct of Lord Chadlington (PDF)
- Conduct Committee
The recommendation is the result of an investigation by the independent House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, which followed a complaint made on behalf of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.
The Commissioner, Martin Jelley QPM DL, investigated Lord Chadlington’s role in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 pandemic and, specifically, his role in assisting a subsidiary of a company he chaired to secure PPE contracts.
The Commissioner found that Lord Chadlington, a former Chairman of the Conservative Party during the Thatcher era, breached the House’s prohibition on members providing “parliamentary services” in return for payment or reward.
He also found that Lord Chadlington had failed to cooperate with two previous investigations into his conduct and had failed to act on his personal honour.
Chadlington appealed against the Commissioner for Standards’ findings and his recommended sanction that he be suspended from the House for 12 months. The Conduct Committee rejected that appeal and upheld the Commissioner’s findings and recommended sanction.
The Conduct Committee’s report will now need to be agreed by the House before the sanction takes effect. The House is expected to consider the report in the week of 16th March.
Chadlington, who is 84, has said he will ‘retire’ from the House of Lords and quit the Tory Party. That’s likely to be of little consolation to Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice:
Grief: A Poem
by Susie Crozier-Flintham
Grief fills the room
Which room or space
Is not a matter
Of speculation
Or some theory
Now debunked
By its own author,
I might add,
But one of
Who
We
Are
As
People
My grief fills my life
Not room or space
But every quarter
Of my being, not
Some speculation
Or some theory,
Conspiracy theory
That serves to
Diminish
Deceive or
Decry
My Dad died.
A declarative
Not speculation
He was among
over 252, 032 others
To pretend
Those things
Untrue
Is to pretend
Some lives
Are worth
Losing
Moreover,
Do we dismiss
Collective grief
As something
Uncomfortable
Because, we don’t decide
We can’t pick and choose
Those dead
Are commemorated
These dead are not
Weren’t they all human?
People with lives?
Weren’t they all children
Once?
Grief fills this room
Because it’s not just
About remembrance
It’s about
Potential lost
Opportunities missed
Connections denied
Grief fills this room
Because it has to
Without it
We are nothing
Mere chattels
On this Earth
Which birthed us
Which birthed us
But masters,
And indeed mistresses
Of our own destiny
Are we
So hear me
You are my family
I lost mine
Not through carelessness
But through design
And in my Dad’s name
You are
Therefore
Mine.
