Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, has been dropped from a list of more than 20 peerages that

From the Times online

Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, has been dropped from a list of more than 20 peerages that will be announced by the government today.

Labour has nominated seven peers, including Tom Watson, the party’s former deputy leader, and two union bosses: Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, and David Prentis, the former head of Unison.
The Conservatives have nominated 13 political peers, including five former Tory MPs and Sir Michael Hintze, one of the party’s biggest donors.

Jake Berry, the chairman of the Conservative Party, and James Duddridge — both prominent supporters of Boris Johnson when he was in office — will be given knighthoods.
However, The Times has been told that the House of Lords appointments commission has advised against a peerage for Dacre, the editor-in-chief of DMG Media, which publishes the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Metro and the MailOnline website. The commission is said to have raised concerns that he is still an “active journalist”. Senior Conservatives have pushed back against the advice, highlighting the fact that Lord Moore of Etchingham, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph and regular columnist, was given a peerage in 2020.
They hope that Dacre can be added to Johnson’s resignation honours list, which remains a subject of significant controversy and is several months from being published.

Hintze, a hedge fund boss who has donated more than £4.7 million to the Tories, will receive a peerage along with Andrew Roberts, a historian who has written positively about the prime minister. Tony Sewell, who was commissioned by Johnson to write a report into ethnic disparities, will also receive a peerage. The five former Tory MPs on the list are Stewart Jackson, who served as a minister in the Brexit department; Sir Hugo Swire, a former Northern Ireland minister; Angie Bray; Graham Evans; and Sir Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill.

The list also includes the economists Ruth Lea and Dambisa Moyo, along with Sheila Lawlor, the director of the Politeia think tank, and Kate Lampard, the chair of GambleAware. Senior Tories have long complained that government legislation is held up in the Lords, where the party does not have an overall majority, and are seeking to redress the balance.

However, the head of the House of Lords appointments commission has written to tell Liz Truss — and Sir Keir Starmer — that recent nominees for peerages have put his panel in an “increasingly uncomfortable” position. He has asked for an urgent meeting with Truss to discuss his concerns.
Under existing rules the commission has an obligation to vet party political appointees for “propriety”, for example by checking that they are not subject to a police investigation or suspected of tax evasion.

Lord Bew, who chairs the commission, is understood to believe it is being put in an invidious position by party leaders proposing “unsuitable” candidates, even if they can technically pass the propriety test.

The mooted appointment of Watson, who made false child abuse claims against several people, including high-level politicians, is controversial. Victims of false child abuse allegations have said he is not fit for a peerage.

What a rotten system we have.