Evgeny Lebedev and Ian Botham have lowest Lords attendance, records show

Posted on March 22, 2026 by Admin

Figures seen by the Guardian show the two peers each attended just 1.12% of sessions in past four years

Evgeny Lebedev’s longstanding commitment to being the most relaxed member of the House of Lords has come under threat from another peer, Ian Botham, with both recording identical attendance rates of 1.12% over the past four years.

According to Lords records seen by the Guardian, Lebedev and Botham – who were both appointed by Boris Johnson – each managed to make it to seven of the 625 sessions of the upper house that took place from the start of 2022 to the end of 2025.

Peers who do not participate enough in House of Lords face sack

Posted on August 26, 2025 by Admin

Ministers will also press ahead with plan for retirement age of 80 after bill abolishing remaining hereditary peers goes through

UK politics live – latest updates

Labour plans to remove peers who do not contribute enough to the House of Lords and to press ahead with plans for a retirement age of 80 from the upper house.

Writing for the Telegraph, the leader of the House of Lords, Angela Smith, said a select committee would consider the next stage of Lords reform after the abolition of hereditary peers.

The last of the hereditary peers in the House of Lords

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Admin

The Labour government has plans to end their ‘outdated and indefensible’ lawmaking position in the upper house

For centuries in Britain, the country’s noblemen have sat in parliament by virtue of their bloodline – but not for much longer.

The last dukes, earls, viscounts and barons are to be removed from the UK’s unelected upper house, the House of Lords, by the newly elected Labour government – which has declared their presence “outdated and indefensible”.

Peer who never spoke in Lords last year claims £50,000 expenses

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Admin

Exclusive: Lord Brookman among dozens not to speak, raising fresh questions about the chamber

‘It’s chaos’: how Brexit crisis is paralysing the House of Lords

A Labour peer claimed almost £50,000 in attendance and travel expenses covering every single day the House of Lords was sitting last year, despite never speaking or asking any written questions, a Guardian investigation reveals.

The former trade union general secretary David Brookman was among dozens of other lords and baronesses who never took part in a single debate, while almost a third of the 800 peers barely participated in parliamentary business over a 12-month period despite costing almost £3.2m in allowances.