Betty Boothroyd's last speech was to slam PMs for handing peerages to rich pals

29 January 2024 , 10:18

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Baroness Betty Boothroyd had intended to warn PMs about doling out peerage to their cronies in her valedictory speech (Image: PA)

The late Baroness Betty Boothroyd had planned to use her final speech in the House of Lords to criticise Prime Ministers for doling out peerages to rich pals.

Lady Boothroyd, the first and only female Commons Speaker, died in February 2023 aged 93-years-old. She was planning to make a farewell speech in the Lords before she retired but she became too ill to deliver it.

But she had signed off the final draft, which her former secretary Sir Nicholas Bevan arranged to be published. In the speech, reported by the Daily Telegraph, she wrote: "Successive Prime Ministers have attached importance to their power of patronage; in my view this should be exercised far less generously than has tended to be the case in the recent past.

"Of course, Prime Ministers should be permitted to make appointments on leaving office but they should be limited in their proposals and they should not include those who are simply friends or have no other qualifications than having fat bank accounts from which they have bankrolled the party in power."

It comes after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss both faced criticism for sending a string of pals and cronies to the Lords. Ms Truss signed off a resignation honours list despite only serving as Prime Minister for 49 days.

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Lady Boothroyd said the Appointments Commission should be given greater say on all nominations for the House of Lords, as it currently only has an advisory role. She wrote: "The commission's powers should not simply be advisory but should be put on a statutory basis. Nobody should become a member of this House if a statutory Appointments Commission has reservations about their suitability."

Lady Boothroyd also warned that the House of Lords had reached an "absurd" size with more than 800 members - and said she didn't "see a role any longer for members who are here simply as a result of their heredity". She added: "Not only do we not need so many members to carry out our role, but our size positively militates against effectiveness and efficiency and is unnecessarily expensive."

The veteran politician served as MP for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000 and was the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000. She then entered the Lords as a crossbench peer in January 2001.

Lizzy Buchan