Members of the House of Lords have received over £3m in payments from foreign governments, including repressive Middle Eastern regimes, over the past two years.
Many of these states have human rights records that have been widely criticized, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.
A total of 27 peers have been paid by foreign states for services including consultancy and legal advice. This includes former chancellor and foreign secretary Philip Hammond, who has declared payments totaling £816,000 over two years from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Campaigners criticize the situation, arguing that peers should not be working for states whose priorities or values, particularly on human rights, are at odds with the UK’s.
There are no House of Lords rules restricting members from taking up consultancies, provided they declare who they are working for and how much they are being paid.
In general, peers are not required to register fees received for their consultancies and directorships. However, since 2021, if they are receiving money from foreign governments or institutions that are or appear to be controlled by foreign states, they must declare the amount.
This change followed concerns that overseas governments, particularly Russia, were meddling in British democratic processes.
Lord Grimstone, a former minister of state for investment in Boris Johnson’s government, was paid £150,000 to advise the Bahraini regime on its “modernisation and reform efforts”.
Qatar, with a poor human rights record, paid at least £100,000 to Alex Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, for consultancy.
Peers who were paid by other states included former defence minister Archie Hamilton, who receives £60,000 a year as a director of FM Capital Partners, a UK investment company controlled by the Libyan government.
Mark Sedwill, a former cabinet secretary and national security adviser, has been paid at least £100,000 a year for advising Temasek, an investment fund owned by the Singapore government.
Five peers who work as barristers have received payments from foreign regimes.
David Pannick, a well-known barrister, has given legal advice to the Bahamas and previously to the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.
Asked whether he thought this was appropriate, Lord Pannick stated, “It depends on what the peer is paid for. In my opinion, there can be no objection to a member of the House of Lords who is a lawyer advising and representing clients, including foreign governments, on legal issues provided that— as the code of conduct now requires—that interest is declared in the register.”
Peter Goldsmith, who was attorney general under Tony Blair, was paid just over £95,000 for legal work for the governments of Azerbaijan, Israel, and South Korea.
Grimstone, Carlile, Hamilton, and Goldsmith declined to comment.
