Polluting of the House of Lords: The cannabis commander, hedge fund boss and the rave club king. What a rum bunch!  

Brian Paddick was known as 'Cannabis Commander' in London in 90s

The main party leaders were accused last night of polluting politics by cramming the House of Lords with donors, cronies, lobbyists and failed politicians.

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband face claims of trading honours for millions of pounds in donations.

Even though the three parties have called for a smaller upper house, their 30 appointments send its membership ballooning to 836 - 200 more than the Commons. Taxpayers face a bill for an extra £1.2million a year.

Lord Steel said the Lords was already full to bursting and older members should be allowed to retire to create space.

‘The chamber is overcrowded every day at question time,' he added.

‘We've had to remove the public seats from below the bar and peers can sit there but can't speak from there and you can't even hear properly what's going on.'

Tories voiced concerns that the Lib Dems handed peerages to two men with links to the proliferation of drugs.

Brian Paddick became known as the ‘Cannabis Commander' in South London in the 1990s after instructing his officers not to arrest or charge those found with marijuana.

Many in the party believe he made a second, failed bid to be London mayor in 2012 only because he was promised a peerage.

He will sit alongside James Palumbo, owner of the Ministry of Sound nightclub, a company which has given nearly £698,000 to the Lib Dems.

He revealed in 2009 that Class A drugs worth more than £50,000 used to be sold at the South London club each weekend.

All three parties gave peerages to lobbyists - compromising their pledge to crack down on what has been described as the scourge of politics.

The working peers, nominated by the party leaders and cleared by the independent House of Lords appointments commission, included JCB boss Sir Anthony Bamford, whose family and firm have given £2.5million to the Conservatives.

His nomination was blocked in 2010 amid concerns about his tax status. An investigation by auditors put him in the clear.

Howard Leigh, who has given the Tories nearly £220,000 and runs the party's leader's group which sells access to dinners with Mr Cameron in return for a £50,000 annual membership fee, also gets a peerage.

Scottish businessman Sir William Haughey, who has given £1.3million to Labour, and Domino's pizza entrepreneur Rumi Verjee, who has given more than £800,000 to the Liberal Democrats, also get seats.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott, a former member of the joint committee on Lords reform, said giving peerages to major donors ‘pollutes parliament and political parties who collude in this'.

He said: ‘It's now more urgent and vital than ever that we elect the lords and get big money out of British politics for good.'

Labour MP Steve McCabe said: ‘Anthony Bamford is one of the Tories' biggest donors. Not content with rewarding him with private dinners in Downing Street and a millionaire's tax cut, David Cameron has now handed him a peerage too.

'It's another example of the Prime Minister standing up for his wealthy donor friends while families see their living standards fall.'

Tory MP Peter Bone criticised the Lib Dems handing a peerage to Mr Paddick. ‘The Lib Dems sound holier than thou in what they say but in their appointment of peers the mask slips,' he said.

‘Brian Paddick is a failed mayoral candidate whose views on not prosecuting drug users are well known. It just goes to show that the Lib Dems are soft on drugs.'

The list of peers includes 14 Conservatives, ten Liberal Democrats and five Labour nominees, as well as the first Green to be appointed a peer - London Assembly member and former deputy mayor Jenny Jones, who was selected for nomination by a ballot of party members.

The UK Independence Party was given no seats in the Lords, where it has just two members.

UKIP peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch condemned the Tory list as ‘cronyism at its worst' and party leader Nigel Farage said: ‘It puts Westminster on a par with a developing world country dictatorship.'

Labour handed a peerage to lobbyist Jon Mendelsohn, who was once Gordon Brown's chief fundraiser.

The Lib Dems gave a peerage to lobbyist and spin doctor Olly Grender and the Tories gave one to lobbyist and banker Matthew Carrington.

The one appointment widely welcomed was that of Doreen Lawrence, mother of the murdered teenager Stephen.

Mrs Lawrence, who will become a Labour peer, said: ‘I'm hoping to have a voice to speak for the ordinary people.

'There have been many times when things have happened to ordinary people that don't always get amplified in the Houses.'

But Alexandra Runswick, of campaign group Unlock Democracy, said Mrs Lawrence was one of a ‘handful of more notable people to distract people's attention away from the fundamental lack of legitimacy'.

She said: ‘The fact these new peers are being shuffled in by the back door during the summer recess, shows you all you need to know about how indefensible a system for stuffing a parliamentary chamber with political appointees has become.

‘It is the usual list of party donors and cronies.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk 02/08/2013