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Cayman Islands' lord let off with apology

Lords panel gives £12,000-a-month peer Maclean a slap on the wrist

A TORY peer paid £12,000 a month to lobby MPs on behalf of a Caribbean tax haven escaped yesterday with a ticking off from fellow lords.

The House of Lords privileges committee ordered David Maclean to apologise after buying his claim he did not sell parliamentary services to the Cayman Islands government.

Campaigning MP Paul Flynn said the verdict was proof that the Lords “isn’t fit to police itself.”

Mr Flynn referred Mr Maclean’s lucrative sideline to the committee in March after details of his contract with the Cayman Islands was leaked.

The Finance Ministry of the British overseas territory had hired Mr Maclean’s Two Lions Consultancy in 2011, with one clause of the contract stating that the lord’s duties included “making representations to members of Parliament.”

He did not disclose that during a previous investigation sought by Mr Flynn in 2012 over a series of approaches to MPs on issues relating to the Cayman Islands.

That hearing ended in acquittal on grounds that there was no evidence that the peer was using his position to provide a parliamentary service.

A new contract in 2012 saw Mr Maclean remain responsible for “promoting the Cayman Islands’ interests by liaising with and making representations to key governmental stakeholders.”

But a panel of peers decided yesterday that the “appropriate sanction would be a personal statement of apology” after hearing Mr Maclean plead that it had “never crossed (his) mind” to produce the contract previously.

A committee statement said: “The critical distinction, as we see it, between Lord Maclean’s case and cases where members were suspended for failing to act on their personal honour is that, whereas in those cases the commissioner found a clear willingness to breach the code by lobbying for reward, here the breach consisted of the inclusion in a written contract of a clause which both sides may very well have understood and agreed was not in fact to be implemented.”

Responding to their judgement, a dismayed Mr Flynn told the Morning Star: “If he didn’t conceal the contract, he certainly didn’t reveal it either.”

He said was “reasonable to assume” that the Cayman Islands government expected its associates to uphold their contractual obligations.

“It’s incredible that someone could pay £12,000 a month for what? Appearing at cocktail parties?

“He looks like a lobbyist, he squawks like a lobbyist — the evidence is there. That’s all I can say about it.”

Mr Maclean will acknowledge that he should not have entered into the contract in an oral apology he is expected to deliver to the Lords on Thursday.

“I misled myself into thinking that, since it was understood that I would not be making representations in reality, then the wording did not matter,” his proposed apology states.

“But words do matter; I was wrong and I apologise to the house for that misjudgment.

“I deeply regret having breached the code in this way and the embarrassment to the house that I recognise is caused by such conduct.”

Mr Flynn added: “Allow-
ing him to get away with an apology is evidence that the House of Lords isn’t fit to police itself in these matters.”

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