Downing Street has released the list of new peers to be appointed in the 'Dissolution honours list' to the House of Lords. The list includes former Cabinet Ministers from Labour and the Tories and Ministers from the last parliament from both the Liberal Democrats and the Tories. Of the Liberal Democrat appointments Lynne Featherstone and Lorely Burt lost their seats in the House of Commons, Shas Sheehan and Dorothy Thornhill were rejected candidates.
From the Tory appointments, Anne McIntosh would have been a candidate for the General Election in May but deselected by Thirsk and Malton Conservatives. Douglas Hogg who claimed on his Parliamentary expenses to have his moat cleaned and stood down in 2010 has also been made a Tory peer. Deputy Leader of the Conservative party William Hague who stood down at the last election as been made a peer as has former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.
Its understood the Liberal Democrat David Laws who had to resign as Chief Secretary to the Treasury over his expenses, while in opposition, had his nomination rejected. But the moat cleaning, expenses claimer, Douglas Hogg was not rejected nor was David Blunkett who had to resign as Home Secretary in 2004 for 'fast tracking' a passport application, denying it and the truth coming out. Mr Blunkett also resigned in 2005 for 'breaking the ministerial code of conduct' over paid work he took while out of the cabinet and didn't consult the parliamentary authorities.
The majority of Labour's new peers were Cabinet Ministers under Tony Blair. Two Labour appointments former Treasury Minister Dawn Primarolo and Former Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party Dave Watts have been made peers after standing down at the last election, both missed off the official list. The list of the other 26 Tories, 11 Liberal Democrats and 6 Labour appointments is below:
