Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Sep 21, 2025

24 U.K. lords placed under investigation over financial interests

24 U.K. lords placed under investigation over financial interests

Twenty-four members of the House of Lords have been placed under investigation, after openDemocracy revealed they had not declared details of companies that they run.

The Standards Commissioner today launched an official probe into the lords – who include Tory donor Lord Bamford, Labour’s Lord Carter of Coles, and the businessman and media personality Lord Sugar.

Rules state that if a lord is a company director, they should “give a broad indication of the company’s business, where this is not self-evident from its name”. But openDemocracy found that dozens of peers have not done this.

Lord Carter of Coles was reported over an offshore company he runs, called Primary Group Limited, based in the tax haven of Bermuda. Although he has declared his directorship, he has not said what the company does.

Lord Bamford, who owns digger firm JCB and has given millions to the Conservative Party, says he is also the director of a company called Editallied Limited. But again, no further details are provided.

Meanwhile, Lord Sugar did not provide a description of one of his companies, Harper Fox Partners Ltd.

Another peer, Lord Powell of Bayswater, who is Margaret Thatcher’s former adviser, now sits on the board of directors for the Paris-based Financière Agache, which owns the luxury fashion house Christian Dior. He provides no description of the company on the official Register of Interests.

In total, openDemocracy identified 54 financial interests from 42 peers that may be in breach of the rules. A few of these were not reported to the Commissioner of Standards because they were changed or rectified shortly after.

A formal complaint was later submitted to the Standards Commissioner last month by Tom Brake, the former Liberal Democrat MP who is now director of Unlock Democracy.

The Commissioner has now announced a formal probe into 24 of these peers.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Brake said: “I welcome the fact that the Lords Commissioner of Standards has launched an investigation into a large number of peers.

“We are making a simple request; that peers are upfront about their business dealings. Without this transparency, people cannot judge whether peers are speaking in the public’s interest or their own.”

When details of the potential breach were first revealed by openDemocracy, MPs and campaigners criticised the lack of transparency in the House of Lords.

Margaret Hodge, the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The rules state clearly that if a peer is a director of a company, they are expected to explain what that company does.

“Failure to do so is of course not itself an indicator of wrongdoing, but the sheer scale of the problem shows that there is a problematic lack of transparency in the Lords. It’s especially concerning to see major Tory party donors or close pals of the PM on this list. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in the mouth.”

The Labour MP added: “This important investigation by openDemocracy raises serious questions over the veracity of some entries in the register of interests in the Lords.”

Sue Hawley, senior director at Spotlight on Corruption, also told openDemocracy that there should be much stronger sanctions for politicians who consistently fail to be transparent.

“The constant drip-feed of scandals about politicians breaching rules is seriously corroding trust in politics and government. Meeting basic transparency rules in financial interest declarations is a fundamental aspect of a healthy democracy,” she said.

The full list of peers under investigation


1. Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
2. Lord Bamford
3. Lord Bilimoria
4. Lord Borwick
5. Lord Carter of Coles
6. Lord Crisp
7. Lord Curry of Kirkharle
8. Lord Fellowes of West Stafford
9. Lord Hameed
10.Lord Kestenbaum
11.Lord Kirkham
12.Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate
13.Lord Levene of Portsoken
14.Lord Northbrook
15.Lord Powell of Bayswater
16.Lord Redesdale
17.Lord Selkirk of Douglas
18.Lord St John of Bletso
19.Lord Sugar
20.Lord Wei
21.Lord Whitby
22.Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise
23.The Duke of Wellington
24.The Earl of Liverpool

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
×