A campaigning peer with severe disabilities today said he has been driven into debt because House of Lords attendance allowance was slashed in “a poorly considered public relations exercise” during lockdown.
Lord Shinkwin accused wealthier peers of an “I’m all right, Jack” attitude towards members who lack private incomes or “platinum-plated pensions”.
“I am now thousands of pounds in debt and living off my savings because the work that peers like me do is not being recognised,” Lord Shinkwin, a leading campaigner on disability issues, told the Evening Standard.
Last night the peer wrote an emotional letter to Lord Fowler, the £104,000-a-year Lords Speaker, accusing the Lords of behaving like a club for the wealthy.
“The Lords establishment looks after its own and people like me who cannot afford to carry on as a working peer without the allowance can go hang.”
A £323 daily allowance was slashed when peers were forced to stay away from Westminster. A daily payment of £162 was brought in for peers who speak or vote remotely — resulting in an embarrassing surge in voting.
Lord Shinkwin said the move devalued the work done by dedicated peers and risked “forcing people like me out and thus making it less diverse”.
“Such an ‘I’m all right, Jack’ approach shows no consideration for those of us who do live in the real world; who gave up secure jobs to enter the Lords.”
A House of Lords spokesman responded: “Like everyone else, the House of Lords has had to take some difficult decisions because of Covid-19.
“The daily allowance is not, and was never intended, to be a salary.”
He said the arrangements were being kept “under review”.
