Tory peer to leave House of Lords after investigation finds he breached standards over Covid PPE deals

Lord Chadlington introduced government to supplier in which he had financial interest in 2020

The Conservative peer Peter Gummer has said he will leave the House of Lords after an investigation found he committed five breaches of standards over Covid PPE deals and failing to cooperate with previous inquiries.

The Lords standards commissioner, Martin Jelley, also found that Gummer, whose peerage title is Lord Chadlington, “did not act on his personal honour” by failing to cooperate with the previous investigations, which cleared him.

Chadlington’s introduction to the government in April 2020 of a company in which he had a financial interest as a potential supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the NHS, his contact with the then health minister Matt Hancock, and further advice to the company, were all found to be breaches of the code governing peers’ conduct.

He was found to have committed three breaches of the rule that peers “must not seek to profit from membership of the house by accepting or agreeing to accept payment or other incentive or reward in return for providing parliamentary advice or services”.

A 12-month suspension, which was upheld by the conduct committee after Chadlington appealed, is at the upper end of penalties for peers’ misconduct. Chadlington said in response that he would retire from the House of Lords and quit the Conservative party.

In April 2020, Chadlington introduced a company in which he had a financial interest to the government as a potential supplier of PPE. The company, SG Recruitment, a small, loss-making agency, was awarded £50m in PPE contracts within weeks, processed by the then Conservative government’s “VIP lane” for politically connected people.

Despite the government contracts, however, SG Recruitment, which was later renamed, went into liquidation in December 2023 owing £1.1m in taxes to HMRC. It then emerged that the Department of Health and Social Care had entirely rejected the PPE supplied under the first contract as “unusable”. It had paid the company £24m.

Chadlington is an influential Tory grandee and party donor, who is a close friend of David Cameron’s, headed a large multinational public relations conglomerate in his professional career, and previously advised John Major.

The findings are the outcome of the third investigation by the House of Lords commissioner for standards into Chadlington’s involvement in introducing SG Recruitment to the government. Jelley launched the investigation last March after complaints were made about Chadlington’s conduct by the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) group.

Chadlington was cleared by previous standards investigations in 2022 and 2023, which followed reporting in the Guardian and complaints by the Labour peer George Foulkes. The then Lords standards commissioner, Akbar Khan, determined the second time that it was “regrettable” that Chadlington had not provided fuller information to the first inquiry.

He told Khan in a written response for the second investigation in August 2023 that he did not “facilitate an introduction” of SG Recruitment’s majority owner, David Sumner, to the Conservative peer Andrew Feldman, who was advising the DHSC on PPE procurement.

The CBFFJ complained to the commissioner after the SG Recruitment contracts were considered by the Covid inquiry as part of its session on Boris Johnson’s government’s procurement of PPE during the pandemic. Chadlington’s text messages and emails, which were published by the inquiry, showed he requested help from Cameron with advice on approaching the government. Cameron gave him the phone number of Feldman, a close friend of the former prime minister’s.

Chadlington then sent an email, which was published by the Covid inquiry and disclosed previously to the Guardian, to Sumner introducing him to “my friend Andrew Feldman. He can help you with PPE we discussed this morning. Drop me off chain. Peter.”

Chadlington did not tell either of the two Lords commissioner investigations that he had sent that email. One week later, the DHSC awarded SG Recruitment a £24m contract to supply coveralls. A month later, SG Recruitment was awarded a second contract, for £26.1m, to supply hand sanitiser.

Chadlington was the chair, a paid director and a shareholder in SG Recruitment’s parent company, Sumner Group Holdings (SGH), registered in Jersey.

The third standards investigation considered again whether Chadlington broke Lords conduct rules prohibiting peers from lobbying ministers or officials for companies in which they have a financial interest. It also found that when Chadlington failed to cooperate with the previous inquries, he breached paragraph 9 of the Lords code of conduct, that: “Members of the house … should act always on their personal honour in the performance of their parliamentary duties and activities.”

In a response issued by his lawyers, Chadlington said: “I wholly reject the findings of this appeal and of the commissioner.”

He added: “Although the committee have acknowledged that I did not act dishonestly, it is important that I make clear that I never profited from an introduction, properly made with honourable intent, at a time of unprecedented national crisis.

“Any errors that I did make were honest. I have apologised for them and I do so again today. For more than three years, since reaching 80, I have discussed retiring with House officials but did not wish to do so while these investigations were ongoing.

“I have now decided, having proudly served as a peer for 30 years, that the time is right for me to retire and resign my membership of the Conservative party.”

Lord Foulkes said: “I welcome this decision. It is unfortunate that Lord Chadlington failed to cooperate with the previous commissioner’s investigations and therefore this has dragged on for so long before the truth has come out.”

In a statement, the CBFFJ said: “We welcome this decision. It vindicates the complaint brought by bereaved families and shows that those who abused their position during the pandemic can be held to account.

“This matters deeply to families, who always pushed very hard for the then government’s multi-billion pound contracts, and “VIP lane” to be properly examined by the Covid inquiry.”