A Tory who only sits in the Lords because of a 580-year-old deal with the King is set to be suspended for nine months for breaching lobbying rules.
The 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury, full name Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, used his contacts in Parliament to promote a Covid firm that paid him £57,000.
The 69-year-old - who lost the Tory whip in October - “clearly” breached the Lords Code of Conduct by “seeking to profit from membership of the House”, a report found.
The Lords Standards Commissioner ruled he was not “deliberately dishonest”. But it said “ignorance is no excuse” and recommended a nine-month suspension, the longest ever of its kind.
In another damning case, a Labour peer also lost the whip today and faces a six-month suspension after working for an eco-friendly cremations firm in 2016 and 2017.
Baroness Mary Goudie - who Tony Blair put in the Lords in 1998 - breached the rule that says she must not “seek to profit” from her membership.
The Commissioner found she had a "consultancy agreement" and gave parliamentary advice to ecoLegacy, which paid her €20,000 over 10 months.
She suggested “a list of key Parliamentarians”, the report said. She offered to book a room and even commissioned the taxpayer-funded House of Lords Library to do research for the firm.
She had dismissed the complaint as “totally misconceived” and “stale” - but the Commissioner dismissed her appeal.
The Earl of Shrewsbury was paid £3,000 a month for 19 months from June 2020 by SpectrumX, which was selling hand sanitisers and a walk-in disinfectant tunnel called the SpectriPOD.
The Harrow-educated toff, whose ancestor John was made an Earl in 1442, wrote to then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock promoting the tunnel.
He also approached health minister Lord Bethell, Boris Johnson ’s top parliamentary aide Alex Burghart, and even the Clerk to the Parliaments - an unelected official.
The hereditary peer wrote an email to SpectrumX director Oliver Morley boasting: “I think the potential to open these doors is very considerable indeed.
“However, my two outstanding invoices need settling in full by close of play tomorrow Monday 7th September, in order for me to progress this.”
The Earl even invited Tory MP Mr Burghart to the opening of SpectrumX's factory in Nantwich - which he declined.
In the same e-mail the Earl, who was a Tory whip, wrote: “I know Alex as he attends one of our Whip’s Meetings every 2 weeks, and I am in touch with him.
“I intend to meet with him next week. Alex is at the very top of the feed chain, and is with Matt Hancock, the Education and Policy Unit at No 10, Gavin Williamson - the Education Secretary whom I also know well - and other members of the Cabinet, on a daily basis.
“You cannot go any higher, I would intend that they should be persuaded to send senior colleagues to a demo of the Pod in Westminster.”
The Earl, who lost the Tory whip in October after 41 years in the Lords, “genuinely believed” he was trying to help the government’s frantic help for PPE, the report found.
It added: “Lord Shrewsbury has shown some insight and contrition regarding his behaviour during this process and has unequivocally accepted that he breached the Code of Conduct, albeit unintentionally.”
But it also found “aggravating factors” as Lord Shrewsbury “has been a senior member of the Lords for since 1981 and in fact served as a Government Whip for at least part of the period of his retainer with SpectrumX.
“He ought to have been modelling the provisions of the Code given the prominent role that he held in the House.”
