Conservative peer Peter Gummer, known as Lord Chadlington, has announced he will leave the House of Lords after an investigation found he committed five breaches of standards related to COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) deals and failing to cooperate with previous inquiries. The Lords standards commissioner, Martin Jelley, determined that Chadlington breached the code of conduct for peers three times by: introducing a company in which he had a financial interest to the government in April 2020 as a potential PPE supplier for the NHS; having contact with the then health secretary, Matt Hancock; and providing further advice to the company.
The breaches specifically violated the rule that peers "must not seek to profit from membership of the house by accepting or agreeing to accept payment or other incentive or reward in return for providing parliamentary advice or services". Jelley also found that Chadlington committed two additional breaches of standards, including that he "did not act on his personal honour", by failing to cooperate with two previous investigations that had cleared him.
A 12-month suspension, upheld by the conduct committee after Chadlington appealed, represents one of the most severe penalties for peer misconduct. In response, Chadlington stated he would retire from the House of Lords and resign from the Conservative party. In April 2020, Chadlington introduced SG Recruitment, a small loss-making agency in which he had financial interests, to the government as a potential PPE supplier. The company was awarded £50 million in PPE contracts within weeks through the then Conservative government's "VIP lane" for politically connected individuals.
Despite the government contracts, SG Recruitment (later renamed) went into liquidation in December 2023 owing £1.1 million in taxes to HMRC. It subsequently emerged that the Department of Health and Social Care had entirely rejected the PPE supplied under the first contract as "unusable", despite having paid the company £24 million.
Chadlington, an influential Tory grandee and party donor who is a close friend of David Cameron, headed a multinational public relations conglomerate during his career and previously advised John Major. These findings result from the third investigation by the House of Lords commissioner for standards into Chadlington's role in introducing SG Recruitment to the government.
Source: www.theguardian.com