Just when you thought the House of Lords couldn't get worse - Arise Lord Moat

A millionaire donor, a host of ex-MPs and a string of long-serving Conservative councillors will help pack the unelected chamber, it has been revealed

Arise Sir Moat: Douglas Hogg will become a member of the House of Lords

David Cameron showered peerages on party pals as he stuffed the House of Lords with Tory cronies.
A millionaire donor, a host of ex-MPs and a string of long-serving Conservative councillors will help pack the unelected chamber, it has been revealed.
The Prime Minister also doled out gongs to chums and advisers as the dissolution lists were finally unveiled nearly five months after the 2010-15 Parliament ended.
Forty-five new peers are appointed, including 26 Tories, 11 Lib Dems and eight from Labour.
All are eligible to claim £300 a day from the public purse just for turning up - piling £1.8million a year onto the annual bill.

Expenses scandal: Tory Douglas Hogg tried to charge taxpayers to build a moat around his house and will now become a Lord

Expenses scandal former MP Douglas Hogg, who tried to charge taxpayers £2,000 for cleaning the moat around his country estate, is one of the Tories becoming a Lord.

 

No moat: Disgraced former MP Douglas Hogg has been awarded a peerage, despite standing down from his role as an MP in the wake of revelations in the MP's expenses scandal, when it emerged he had claimed to have his moat cleared

Ultimo bra tycoon Michelle Mone, City fatcat James Lupton and ex-Foreign Secretary William Hague will also be draped in ermine as Conservative peers.
Campaigners hit out at the new appointments, which take the Lords’ membership to more than 800.
It already costs £100million a year to run.
Electoral Reform Society Chief Executive Katie Ghose blasted the announcement as “an expensive insult to the public”.

PA

Bra tycoon: Michelle Mone will also become a Tory peer

She said: “Today’s further expansion of the Lords – part of the constant arms race to pack the chamber with loyalists, whichever party is in power – shows the system is well and truly bust.
“The rapid growth in size and cost of our ‘Upper Chamber’ is a national scandal, and the sooner we sort out this mess the better.
“Instead of more partisan packing of the Lords, now is the time to do the right thing and get on with the vital work of ensuring we have a democratic Upper House, where the public finally get a say.”
Busty blonde Scot Ms Mone, who models her own lingerie, is currently spearheading a Government drive to give new firms a lift in unemployment blackspots.
She previously boasted of “helping” the PM “keep the Union together” during last year’s Scottish referendum campaign.

AFP

Lord Hague: Former Foreign Secretary William Hague will also be joining the House of Lords

Branding herself “Lady M” on Twitter, she said she was “honoured and humbled” to made a peer, adding: “I promise to work V hard for our country.”
Multi-millionaire investment banker Mr Lupton is a joint treasurer of the Conservatives and was in charge of raising cash for the party’s election overflowing war chest.
With a personal fortune of £130million, the former deputy chairman of merchant banking giant Baring Brothers International has donated £2.8million to the Tories since 2009.
That includes more than £250,000 in June, and almost £400,000 in the run-up to the Tories’ shock general election triumph.
He donated a £100,000, week-long, luxury trip to his £56million Majorca estate as an auction lot at the Tories’ lavish Black and White fundraising ball at the five-star Grosvenor Hotel in Mayfair in February.