Evgeny Lebedev has turned up to little more than 1% of Lords sessions since Boris Johnson made him a peer, Guardian analysis shows, making him among the seemingly least active members of the chamber over the past three years. Of 318 possible sittings since he formally entered the Lords in November 2019, the billionaire newspaper proprietor and friend of Johnson attended four times up to 7 December, attendance records show, 1.25% of the total. Lord Lebedev, who is a crossbench peer, has spoken in the chamber just once – 18 months ago – and has never voted. He is among a series of peers who appear to play a minimal role in the business of the house, while not using the option of taking a formal leave of absence from the Lords. The Lords works on a different basis to the Commons, with many peers holding specialisms or jobs with a particular expertise outside the chamber, and who thus tend to primarily contribute when their area of knowledge is under consideration. But with plans to reduce the 800-strong size of the chamber undermined by a string of new peerages created by recent prime ministers, there is increasing concern that too many Lords members risk being little more than passengers.
The attendance statistics showed that so far this year, 187 peers had attended fewer than 20% of all sittings, higher than the equivalent figures of 152 peers who did this in 2020 and 164 in 2021. Anthony Bamford, the industrialist and Conservative donor who was made a Tory peer by David Cameron in 2013, has attended about 4% of Lords sittings since 2020, and only six times in the last two years. In his near-decade in the house he has spoken five times. Ian Botham, the cricketer made a crossbench peer by Johnson at the same time as Lebedev, attended 61 times during 2020, but has only done so twice this year and has not spoken in the chamber for two years. Some peers appear too busy with outside interests to have the time to attend the Lords. Peter St Clair-Erskine, who as the Earl of Rosslyn has sat as a hereditary peer since 1979, has spoken once in the intervening 43 years, and has voted five times, all connected to reform of the Lords. Lord St Clair-Erskine is a former senior police officer and royal aide, who for the last year has held the role of master of the household for Charles as Prince of Wales and then king. Jo Valentine, a former corporate financier who is heavily involved in community business charities, has attended fewer than 2% of the 461 Lords sittings since the start of 2020. The crossbench peer was formerly a member of several committees, which are not counted under the formal attendance records, but has not been since 2019. The Lords is the biggest legislative chamber in the world apart from China’s National People’s Congress, and efforts to reduce its size to about 600, with encouragement for less assiduous peers to retire, and a proposed “two out, one in” policy, coming to nothing. Johnson was seen as particularly blatant in favouring people for peerages, also ennobling his brother, Jo, when he elevated Lord Botham and Lebedev. One Tory peer, told that Lebedev had attended four Lords sessions, said: “I’m surprised it’s as often as that.” Jenny Jones, one of two Green peers, said that given the size of the chamber, “of course we have passengers”. She said: “The house generally is tolerant of people who have specialisms not turning up because, obviously, you want them to come to the bills that are relevant to them. “And of course, the opposition parties all hate it when the Tories whip and all these people crawl out of their cupboards or wherever they are to vote. But that’s completely different from somebody who takes the title and then just runs.” A spokesperson for Lebedev said: “Lord Lebedev intends to contribute on various matters in which he has interest and relevance throughout the course of 2023.” Lord Bamford, Botham, St Clair-Erskine and Lady Valentine were contacted via their House of Lords email addresses but did not respond.