Youngest peer to take his seat

The government’s new adviser on the ‘big society’, Nat Wei, will become the youngest peer to enter the House for 10 years when he takes his seat on Thursday.

Mr Wei, 33, a founder of Teach First, is one of three new Tory peers created to serve in or advise the government.

He is the youngest life peer appointed since Lord Redesdale (LD) took his seat in 2000 and is almost six years younger than Baroness Warsi (C), who had previously been the House’s most junior member.

Sir James Sassoon, who is due to take his seat on Thursday, is the Treasury’s commercial secretary, and Lord Hill of Oareford, who took his seat last week, is a junior education minister.

However, after a period in which former business secretary Lord Mandelson and transport secretary Lord Adonis were in the Lords, there are no longer any heads of departments in the House.

Lord Strathclyde, who is leader of the Lords after shadowing the role for 12 years, is joined in the cabinet by minister without portfolio, and Conservative Party co-chairman, Lady Warsi.

The 24 ministers in the Lords comprise the leader, advocate general for Scotland Lord Wallace of Tankerness, four ministers of state, nine parliamentary under secretaries of state and 10 whips, including Lord Astor of Hever, a late appointment as an unpaid junior defence minister who will also serve as a paid whip.

Eight of the other appointments are unpaid: whips Baroness Northover, Baroness Rawlings, Lord Taylor of Holbeach and Lord Wallace of Saltaire, and ministers Lady Warsi, Sir James, Lord Marland and Lord Howell of Guildford.

Those who are paid will receive less than their immediate predecessors. A five per cent pay cut introduced by the new government reduces the salary of a cabinet minister in the Lords from £106,356 to £101,038; of a minister of state from £83,043 to £78,891; and of a parliamentary under secretary of state from £72,326 to £68,710.

Of the 24 whips and ministers, five are Liberal Democrats including the party’s peers’ leader Lord McNally, who becomes a justice minister, and Lord Strathclyde’s deputy. Lord Shutt of Greetland, formerly the Lib Dem chief whip, becomes the deputy government chief whip, with Baroness Anelay of St Johns (C) the chief whip.

Lords Adonis and Mandelson, who would have been shadowing ministers sitting in the Commons, are not members of the shadow cabinet.

But former attorney general Baroness Scotland of Asthal is at present shadow to her successor, Dominic Grieve.

Lord Eatwell (L), who was a Treasury opposition spokesman before the 1997 election, returned to the Despatch Box to reply to Lord De Mauley’s repetition of the answer to an emergency Commons question on spending cuts.

Second by-election imminent

Viscount Colville of Culross (Ind), 76, Lord Wolfson (C), 82, who had been on leave of absence, and Lord Bernstein of Craigweil (L), 74, have died.

The death of Lord Colville, who took his seat in July 1954 and was the House’s fifth longest-serving peer, creates a second vacancy for an elected hereditary following the earlier death of the Earl of Northesk (C).

Lord speaker Baroness Hayman, announcing the deaths, also sent condolences to acting Labour peers’ leader Baroness Royall of Blaisdon whose husband, Stuart Hercock, died during the dissolution.

Earl Ferrers, opening the debate on the Queen’s Speech, offered his best wishes to Black Rod, Lieutenant-General Sir Freddie Viggers, who suffered a stroke on the day Parliament returned and whose role in the state opening was taken by Yeoman Usher Ted Lloyd-Jukes.

Non-doms leave as Kernaghan arrives

Tories Lord Laidlaw and Lord McAlpine of West Green have become the first life peers ever permanently to cease to be Members of the House after resigning their seats to avoid losing ‘non-dom’ tax status.

In a further first for the House Paul Kernaghan, the former chief constable of Hampshire Constabulary, is in line to become the first Lords commissioner for standards.

The two Tory peers took advantage of a one-off three-month window, which expires on July 7, to leave the House. All remaining members will be required to pay full UK tax in line with section 41 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, which became law following major concessions last month.

Lord Laidlaw, who gave the Conservative Party £3m in the last quarter of 2007, took leave of absence in the same year after he was criticised by the House of Lords Appointments Commission for his failure to honour a commitment to end his tax exile. He had been a Member since 2004, while Lord McAlpine had been a Member since 1984.

The creation of the post of commissioner follows peers’ acceptance of a new code of conduct which came into force at the start of this Parliament.

Baroness Fritchie (Ind), a former commissioner for public appointments, chaired an initial panel that interviewed candidates before the party leaders; the Lord Speaker and the convenor of the crossbench peers interviewed a smaller number and unanimously recommended Mr Kernaghan. Peers will be given the opportunity to approve the appointment on Wednesday.

• Lord Patten (C), a prominent Roman Catholic, made the solemn affirmation before, realising his mistake, he flipped over the prompt card and swore allegiance to the Queen.

Peers influx attacked as ‘political fix’

The government has been heavily criticised for the plan contained in the coalition documents to create peers so that the Lords reflects the share of the vote secured by parties in the general election.

On a literal reading of the agreement, if the number of Labour peers remains constant, the government would have to create 75 Tory peers and 96 Liberal Democrats, as well as 20 additional Ukip peers, 14 from the BNP and seven from the Green party.

Labour acting peers’ leader Baroness Royall of Blaisdon said it could be seen as “a political fix to benefit those in power”.

Lord Grocott (L), a former government chief whip, said it had been a “fundamental convention” that there was “rough parity” between the government and main opposition party.

“The government has a clear majority as it has a clear majority in the Commons,” he said. “If that is to be enhanced even more, that would be quite outrageous.

“If I as chief whip had known that on every single vote the Liberal Democrats would have voted with the government, I couldn’t have justified a full-time job. I’d have come in at midday and watched the cricket in the afternoon.”

But deputy prime minster Nick Clegg, in response to questions following a speech on political reform in London, said the government was “not going to start orchestrating some great stuffing of the House of Lords”, and added that he would like any pre-reform transitional arrangement to be reduced to “a heartbeat”.

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