The 2009 cash for influence scandal (also cash for amendments or cash for laws) was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2009 concerning four Labour Party Life Peers offering to help make amendments to legislation for up to £120,000. The Lords Privileges Committee recommended the two men be suspended from the House for up to six months after an investigation into allegations made against four Labour peers.[1] Lord Taylor of Blackburn was suspended as a Labour Party member pending the investigation while Lord Truscott quit the party. On 20 May, the House of Lords considered the report of the Privileges Committee and voted to suspend Lord Taylor and Lord Truscott for six months.[2]
The suspensions were the first since Oliver Cromwell’s era in the 1640s.[3] The previous member to be suspended from the House of Lords is believed to have been Thomas Savile, who was barred in 1642 for siding with King Charles I.[4]
- ^ " Two Labour peers face suspension", BBC NEWS, Thursday, 14 May 2009
- ^ "Lords vote to suspend two peers". BBC News. 21 May 2009. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ "Parliament's darkest day: MPs suspended and Michael Martin at risk", The Times, 15 May 2009 [1]
- ^ Sparrow, Andrew (14 May 2009). "Two Labour peers face suspension for offering to change law for money". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 September 2024.