UK Edition
Peer acted as paid adviser to King of Bahrain during the Arab Spring
A prominent peer acted as a paid adviser to the King of Bahrain at a time when the country was repressing protesters during the Arab Spring, it has emerged.
Lord Inge, a former chief of the defence staff, advised King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for 14 years, according to a new analysis.
A report by Transparency International, the campaign group, highlights Bahrain as one of several "corrupt and repressive" regimes that have been supported by MPs and peers.
The group calls for a ban on parliamentarians providing "paid or voluntary services" to foreign governments.
Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International UK, said: "Politicians should be working on our behalf, not the interests of foreign states who increasingly have subversive desires."
The report also calls for a ban on generous overseas travel provided to MPs and peers by foreign governments, highlighting the trips provided to Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist MP, and his family by the Sri Lankan regime in 2013.
Last week Mr Paisley was banned from the Commons for a record 30 sitting days following an official investigation that was launched in response to The Telegraph's disclosure of the trips in an article last year.
He had failed to register the travel and initially claimed that the Telegraph's article was "devoid of fact".
Kathryn Stone, the Commons Standards Commissioner, found that Mr Paisley went on to engage in “paid advocacy” by going on to lobby David Cameron in favour of the Sri Lankan regime.
Lord Inge, who retired from the Lords in 2016, declared his work for the King of Bahrain in the official register of interests, in line with parliamentary rules, and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
But the Transparency International report argues that work "to the benefit of corrupt and repressive regimes ... ultimately undermines the reputation of Westminster as a beacon of democracy and the rule of law, and risks bringing into question the integrity of parliamentarians."
The group examined the "support" by MPs and peers for three countries - Azerbaijan, Russia and Bahrain - to show the scale of the hospitality being afforded to parliamentarians by "repressive regimes".
The report, entitled 'In whose interest?', states that at least £333,000 was spent on flights and accommodation for MPs and peers to visit Azerbaijan between 2007 and 2017, the vast majority of which was funded by the government or "lobbyists and institutions connected to the regime".
"There is a clear and present risk that overseas trips sponsored either directly or indirectly by corrupt and repressive regimes may present the perception or reality that parliamentarians’ judgements and actions are influenced by the malign intent of their hosts," it said.
Meanwhile, a dozen MPs had been paid at least £93,700 to appear on Russian state television channels since 2014, according to the analysis.
Mr Hames added: “International visits can certainly aid informed parliamentary debate, but when these trips are offered by foreign governments they undermine the independence of those MPs accepting them.
“Citizens abroad have looked on our parliamentarians supporting their oppressors with anger and hostility, damaging the reputation of the UK abroad as a champion of democracy and human rights.
"Subsequent advocacy legitimising often brutal, repressive and corrupt regimes can leave people there subject to further ill-treatment from emboldened governments, and abandoned in their struggles for justice.”