Lord Hoyle cleared of misconduct by inquiry

May 26 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben _320

THE chairman of Warrington Wolves rugby league club has been cleared of wrongdoing after a landmark inquiry into whether he broke Parliament’s anti-sleaze rules.

A House of Lords disciplinary committee decided there was “no deliberate misconduct” by Doug Hoyle, who had admitted taking money to introduce an arms company lobbyist to a defence minister.

The verdict will come as a relief to Lord Hoyle, a Warrington Labour MP for 16 years until 1997, who faced being the first peer “named and shamed” for breaching the Lords code of conduct. However, the committee, led by retired lord chief justice Lord Woolf, was immediately criticised for failing to interview any witnesses about the allegations. The row centred on Lord Hoyle taking money to introduce an arms firm lobbyist to the government minister in charge of weapons purchases.

Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat MP, criticised the committee’s failure to speak to either Lord Drayson, or to any witnesses. The peer was ennobled as Lord Hoyle of Warrington, after stepping down at the 1997 election.