Martin challenged the Prime Minister during PMQs on the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation into ‘Boris, the Lord and the Russian Spy’. Here is a transcript of the question from Hansard:
Martin Docherty-Hughes MP (SNP, West Dunbartonshire): In the past couple of days, yet again we have been reminded that a Member of the other House was appointed contrary to the recommendations of MI5. We learned from a Channel 4 film that even the monarch was asked to be involved because Whitehall officials were so opposed, given that the person was deemed a security risk to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So I ask the Prime Minister: does he agree with MI5, or does he agree with his predecessor that that peer should still be in the other House?
The Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak): Mr Speaker, for obvious reasons I will talk in more general terms. The House of Lords Appointments Commission vets Cross-Bench and party political life peerage nominations to the House of Lords and, where appropriate, seeks advice from Government Departments and agencies. The House of Lords Appointments Commission has previously undertaken that, were a Prime Minister to recommend a peerage against the commission’s formal advice, it would write publicly to the relevant parliamentary Select Committee.
Watch the full session of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) here.
