Expenses: Baroness Uddin, Lord Paul and Lord Bhatia suspended from House of Lords

The peers Baroness Uddin, Lord Paul and Lord Bhatia have been given lengthy suspensions from the House of Lords after wrongly claiming thousands of pounds in expenses.

Labour peers Lady Uddin and Lord Paul, and the crossbencher Lord Bhatia were suspended after the upper chamber approved the damning judgments on their expenses claims by the Privileges and Conduct Committee.
Lady Uddin was suspended until the end of the parliamentary session in 2012 and told to repay £125,349.10.
Lord Bhatia was sidelined for eight months and has already repaid more than £27,000.
Lord Paul was suspended for four months and has already returned £41,982.
The sanctions are the toughest imposed on misbehaving members for more than 300 years.

Lady Uddin Lord Bhatia were found to have acted ''not in good faith'' by incorrectly declaring their main homes in order to claim generous overnight allowances.
An initial investigation decided that Lord Paul had also acted ''not in good faith'' in his home designations.
However, the committee rejected this finding on appeal, accepting that although ''utterly unreasonable'' and ''negligent'', he had not been ''dishonest'' and had already returned £41,982 last year.
In Lady Uddin and Lord Bhatia's cases, the sanctions are significantly heavier than those meted out to Labour members Lord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn after a political lobbying scandal last year.
The pair were excluded for around six months and became the first to be suspended from the upper house since the 17th century.
The expenses abuses centre around the allowance of £174 a day that was, until recently, available to peers whose main home was outside the M25.
Lady Uddin claimed more than £100,000 between 2005 and 2010 by stating that her main residence was a small flat in Maidstone, Kent, rather than her family home in east London.
Lord Bhatia had claimed £27,446 in expenses on the basis that his main home was a small flat occupied by his brother in Reigate, Surrey, even though he and his wife were listed on the electoral roll at their long-standing address in Hampton, south-west London.
Lord Paul, a steel magnate and one of Britain's wealthiest men, lived in London but designated a one-bedroom flat in an Oxfordshire hotel that he owned as his main home.
All three also claimed travel expenses.
A Labour Party spokesman confirmed that Lord Paul had resigned his membership, while Lady Uddin had been suspended amid moves to expel her.
Source:telegrap

Labour lord plays race card over ban on three expenses peers who claimed nearly £200,000

Three Asian peers given lengthy bans from Parliament after wrongly claiming almost £200,000 in expenses are at the centre of an extraordinary legal battle over whether they were targeted because of their race.
The sanctions against Lady Uddin, Lord Paul, and Lord Bhatia were the most draconian against misbehaving peers in 300 years.
But now Labour peer Lord Ali has hired leading human rights lawyer Imran Khan to review the damning judgment on the peers by the Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee.
At least one of the three – Lord Paul – admitted he had ‘grave reservations’ about the disciplinary process used to punish him.
Asked if he thought he had been the victim of racism, he said last night: ‘I am very unhappy with the way I was treated but am not willing to comment any further.’
The suspensions, ordered last October, were the longest for the Upper House since the 17th century.
They were prompted by a series of revelations made by peers at the time of the MPs’ expenses scandal and led to a string of internal disciplinary probes.
Lord Ali, who created Channel 4’s Big Breakfast, was made a peer by Tony Blair in 1998 at the age of 34.
He said: ‘Something is not right about the way these three peers were treated. There were at least 12 members of the House of Lords who were accused of abusing their second home allowances. Yet only these three were singled out to be disciplined. Look at them.
‘All three are Asian. It does not look right. This process was flawed. At one point, when Lady Uddin was before the sub-committee she was reduced to tears by the questioning.
‘She excused herself, and went to the lavatory, but within three minutes they were bashing on the door demanding she come out.’


The Labour peer Lord Clarke of Hampstead also breached the rules governing the second homes allowance. But after he repaid £9,190 he was ordered to apologise in the Lords chamber and was not suspended.

Lord Ali, a multi-millionaire who gave up investment banking to set up Planet 24 broadcasting company in the 1990s with Bob Geldof, said: ‘I felt I had no choice but to ask Imran Khan to conduct an independent review.’
Lord Ali will pay Mr Khan’s fees but – whatever his conclusions – the House of Lords will not be bound to react to them.
Members of the sub-committee of the Conduct committee included Lord Irvine, a former Labour Lord Chancellor, Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, and Lord Dholakia who for 25 years was head of the Commission for Racial Equality.


The intervention of Lord Ali has appalled many of his colleagues.
Lord Strathclyde, the Leader of the Lords, said in a letter to Lord Ali: ‘I regret that you have felt it necessary to pursue this route particularly in the light of assurances from Lady Manningham-Buller and Lord Dholakia.
‘In particular, I reject any suggestion that race played a role in the deliberations of the relevant committees and House officials.’
Tanzanian-born Lord Dholakia, a former president of the Lib Dems, said: ‘I have spent almost 30 years in the race relations industry. It is unthinkable I would be involved in anything that smacks of racism.’


Lord Taylor and Lord Hanningfield, who were Tory peers, were jailed earlier this year for 12 months and nine months respectively for fiddling their second home allowances after a police investigation. They are suspended from the House until May.
Lady Uddin claimed more than £100,000 between 2005 and 2010 by stating that her main residence was a small flat in Maidstone, Kent, rather than her family home in East London. She was suspended for 18 months and ordered to repay £125,000 in second home allowances.
Lord Bhatia had claimed £27,446 on the basis that his main home was a small flat occupied by his brother in Reigate, Surrey, even though he and his wife were listed on the electoral roll at their long-standing address in Hampton, South-West London. He was sidelined for eight months, has repaid more than £27,000 and resumed his seat.
Lord Paul, one of Britain’s richest men, lived in London but designated a one-bedroom flat in an Oxfordshire hotel that he owned as his main home. He was suspended for four months and has returned £41,982. All three also claimed travel expenses.
Lady Uddin and Lord Bhatia were found by the conduct committee to have acted ‘not in good faith’ by incorrectly declaring their main homes to claim overnight allowances. An initial investigation reached the same conclusion about Lord Paul.
However, on appeal the committee accepted that although ‘utterly unreasonable’ and negligent, he had not been dishonest.
Neither Lord Bhatia or Lady Uddin were willing to comment.
Source:dailymail

Tags:Amir Bhatia, Lord Bhatia, Lord amir Bhatia, edutrust,eact, dailymail.com, sundaytimes.com,bbc.co.uk, redhotcurry.co.uk, civilsociety.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, guardian.co.uk, Parliament.uk, nriinternet.com,publications.parliament.uk

Lords agrees sanctions against Lord Bhatia, Lord Paul and Baroness Uddin

The House of Lords considered the three Privileges and Conduct Committee reports on the conduct of Lord Bhatia, Lord Paul and Baroness Uddin on 21 October and agreed to the recommended sanctions against the three Members.

Lord Bhatia has been suspended from the House for eight months. Lord Bhatia repaid a total of £27,446, which he was found to have wrongly claimed, on 5 October 2010.

Lord Paul has been suspended from the House for four months. Lord Paul repaid £41,982 to the House in late 2009.

Baroness Uddin has been suspended from the House until the end of the current session of Parliament and the House agreed that she had wrongly claimed a total of £125,349.10. The Clerk of the Parliaments will make arrangements to recover this money.

Further information

The House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee reports followed investigations into the three Members’ use of the financial support available to Members of the House of Lords by the Sub-Committee on Lords’ Conduct.

The reports found the Members to have breached the rules on Members’ use of financial support and recommended sanctions against them.
Source:The House of Lords