I see from the Beeb that Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the Leader of the Lords, is to replace the repatriated Peter Mandelson as the UK’s member of the European Commission.
There was speculation previously that Geoff Hoon could have been the nominee, which would have prompted a by-election in his parliamentary seat because you can’t be an MP and an EU Commissioner.
But can you be a Lord and an EU Commissioner?
Section 1.1.1 of the Commissioners’ Code of Conduct (PDF) states:
Commissioners may not hold any public office of whatever kind.
Now that sounds fairly unambiguous. Being a member of a legislature, however that position is obtained, must surely count?
Baroness Ludford, the Liberal Democrats’ London MEP, has a similar problem: MEPs are no longer allowed to sit in national legislatures, so in order to continue in the post after the European elections in 2009, Sarah Ludford will either need to get the rules changed, or resign her peerage – something the law doesn’t currently allow her to do.
Until now, it’s not been in the Government’s interest to help out by introducing a law that would give “life” peers the ability to give up their peerage – a change similar to that made to hereditary peerages following pressure brought by Tony Benn in the 1960s when he became Viscount Stansgate.
Will Baroness Ashton’s new post prompt Labour to act so that she can avoid a conflict of interest? Or will they try to fudge the issue by claiming that a voluntary “leave of absence” from the upper house – during which she could effectively return to and vote in the Lords whenever she wanted – would be enough to meet the European Commissioners’ Code of Conduct?
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