Tory donors ‘who pay £3 million get seats in the Lords’: Investigation reveals that wealthy backers are ‘guaranteed’ a peerage if they take on party treasurer role and shell out – as insiders claim ‘law of omerta’ keeps practice ‘concealed in plain sight’

• The Tories have been accused of rewarding millionaire donors with peerage 
• A new investigation showed 16 of the party’s main treasurers were offered a seat
• Former Tory ministers have called the alleged practice a ‘scandal in plain sight’  

The Conservative Party has been accused of guaranteeing peerages to a group of multi-millionaires who have donated more than £3 million to the party.

Wealthy backers who take on the temporary role of party treasurer appear to be offered a seat in the House of Lords once they have donated the set figure. 

All 16 of the Conservatives’ main treasurers, excluding the most recent, were offered a seat in the Lords in the past two decades including Peter Cruddas, Lord Spencer, Lord Fraser, Lord Lupton and Lord Farmer.

According to the investigation by The Sunday Times and Open Democracy, six former Tory ministers felt uneasy about the practice, some calling it a ‘scandal’.

One ex-party chairman said: ‘The truth is the entire political establishment knows this happens and they do nothing about it…The most telling line is once you pay your £3 million, you get your peerage.’ 

Another former minister called it a ‘scandal in plain sight’ whilst another alleged that ‘a law of omerta’ silences anyone from discussions of a link between donations and seats.

Peter Cruddas’s peerage was pushed through by Boris Johnson despite the Lords appointments commission’s recommendation 

Boris Johnson has been dragged through a number of ‘sleaze-row’ and cronyism scandals in the party  

Peter Cruddas’s peerage was pushed through by Boris Johnson despite the Lords appointments commissions’ recommendation. 

One of its members told the investigation the decision ‘left a bad taste in my mouth’.

The commission advised against the honour because Mr Cruddas resigned as Conservative co-treasurer in 2012 after it was claimed he offered access to then PM and his chancellor in return for donations and it is believed he has been turned down numerous times before.

According to data from The Electoral Commission Mr Cruddas donated a total of £4,238,299.66 to the party and campaigns it’s supported going as far back as 2009. 

Today ex-Prime Minister John Major became one of the latest to hit out against Johnson in the deepening sleaze-row his party has been embroiled in, the latest being Owen Paterson’s scandal.

Speaking of Downing Street refusing to rule out the possibility of recommending Mr Paterson a peerage, Major told BBC Radio 4: ‘There have been some extraordinary elevations to the peerage in recent years, quite extraordinary.

‘Quite apart from the over-large number of peers that have been put there, I think it would be rather extraordinary if that happens and I’m not at all sure if it would be approved of by the House of Lords or by those who vet peerages.’

Johnson was also dragged into a fresh row last night as he refused to say how much his free holiday in a luxury Spanish villa owned by Zac Goldsmith’s family was worth.

The investigation suggests treasurers are rewarded with peerage if they donate more than £3 million to the party 

The investigation said insiders called the alleged appointment system a ‘scandal in plain sight’

Labour demanded the Commons standards watchdog launch investigations into both Boris Johnson’s stay and the lavish revamp of his Downing Street flat.

In the latest register of ministerial interests, the PM revealed the getaway was funded by Lord Goldsmith, the former MP who he gave a peerage to after he lost his Commons seat. 

He spent around a week at a property in the hills above Marbella with his wife Carrie and son Wilfred last month following the Conservative Party conference.

According to the investigation a Tory insider said peerages were dangled like ‘carrots’ in the ‘cynical operation’ and told of an instance where a donor was convinced to give £1 million because it may lead to a seat. 

Lord Spencer, left, is one of the 16 of the Conservatives’ main treasurers, excluding the most recent, who were offered a seat in the Lords in the past two decades

Lord Spencer pictured with Jacob Rees-Mogg

There was apparently no suggestion that any of the donors named were promised peerage or requested it return for donations but several sources in the party have criticised the system’s rewarding of wealthy benefactors. 

Lord Spencer’s lawyers have denied the claim that he took the treasury role for peerage and Lord Farmer told the investigation that he donated to the party ‘because he wanted a Conservative government’ while others declined to comment. 

A Conservative Party spokesman had said that it doesn’t believe big donors who ‘contribute to political causes and parties should be disqualified from sitting in the legislature’. 

MailOnline has reached out to the Conservative Party, Peter Cruddas, Lord Spencer, Lord Farmer and Lord Lupton for comment.  

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