A hereditary peer who claimed mileage for journeys he did not make and used a season ticket to get to business meetings faces suspension.
The House of Lords Conducts Committee has said the Earl of Shrewsbury should be suspended for two weeks for breaking the rules. He claimed to have driven 120 miles in January 2024, and also wrongly claimed £199.52 for rail fares, investigators found.
Lord Shrewsbury, whose full name is Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, used a rover train ticket purchased with his House of Lords credit card to attend a business meeting unconnected to his duties. He also wrongly claimed for four journeys between his home in Derbyshire and Stafford railway station, the committee was told.
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The investigation was launched after The Guardian reported the peer had quipped that “government pays” for his travel in an email to fellow directors. He had claimed the cost of a rail ticket – permitting him to first-class travel – to attend a meeting of Cheshire Land Limited, a company he is a non-executive director of.
A report by the committee said: “Lord Shrewsbury was quick to admit wrongdoing and offered to reimburse the House shortly after The Guardian’s allegations were put to him. He has offered his ‘deep and sincere apologies’.
“These are all mitigating factors. Nonetheless, any breach of the rules on financial support for members is inherently serious, given that it is public money and the likely effect on public perception of the House and its members of misuse of the scheme of financial support.
“Lord Shrewsbury’s use of the rover ticket for the journey for his business meeting was intentional, as evidenced by his prior remark “Government pays!” His approach to his mileage claims was unacceptably casual. This level of culpability constitutes an aggravating factor.”
Commissioner for Standards Martin Jelley previously found Lord Shrewsbury’s use of the rover ticket was intentional, and he had been “unacceptably casual” in his approach to mileage claims. In an email to a fellow director, the committee’s report said, Lord Shrewsbury is understood to have said: “Travelling up from London. Government pays!”
Explaining his mileage claim, the peer wrote: “I claimed reimbursement for these journeys simply in a ridiculous error which is entirely my fault. With commuting each day, when I fill in the monthly claim forms it is nearly always a claim of 60 miles per day. I seldom stay overnight in London when attending the House […]. I am completely at fault as I did not check the return / claim before I sent it to the Finance Department and therefore submitted an incorrect figure.”
And of the rail claim, he said: “I did not use the Rover Ticket to attend the [Cheshire Land] Board Meeting in Liverpool on the 17th January 2024. I did use it to travel from Euston to Stafford early on that morning. I changed at Stafford to a local train for Liverpool, then returned by local train to Stafford, then used the Rover Ticket to travel Stafford to London to attend a Sitting of the House.
“I paid for the Stafford to Liverpool and return local ticket onthat train personally.”