Published in the Times 13th June 2001

Tony Blair faced fresh charges of cronyism yesterday after he gave a peerage to a key Downing Street aide without having the appointment vetted by independent scrutineers.

The Prime Minister did not even inform the new House of Lords Appointments Commission when he gave Sally Morgan, his political secretary, a seat in the upper chamber. Ms Morgan was given a title as a backdoor rout to Parliament so that she could take up a job in Government as a Cabinet Office Minister with responsibility for women's issues.

The commission, set up by Mr Blair last year, is supposed to vet all Lords nominees, whether political or independent, so that they meet "the highest standards of propriety". This role was previously carried out by the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee.

Downing Street confirmed that Ms Morgan's appointment had been made directly by the Prime Minister to Buckingham Palace. Officials insisted that this was the traditional procedure when making people peers so that they could become ministers. "New ministers who become peers have never gone through the scrutiny process of the Appointments Commission, or before that the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee," a spokesman said.

However, the formal remit of the Appointments Commission makes it clear that it is supposed to scrutinise all nominations without exception. "The Appointments Commission is charged with vetting all those recommended for life peerages," it says.

The Government's 1998 White Paper, which announced plans for the commission, said that it would "oversee the propriety of all recommendations of political peers, so that all peers are vetted to the highest standard".

Last night members of the commission, headed by Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, voiced their surprise at being sidelined. "I had always assumed that everybody would be scrutinised," one said. Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords, said: "It shows fundamentally that the only interest of the Prime Minister is the personal control of the House of Lords. We don't want to see in this Parliament a repeat of the cronyism and favouritism that we saw in the Lords over the last four years".

Pam Giddy, director of Charter88, the pro-democracy pressure group, criticised Mr Blair for giving a peerage to a friend without subjecting the appointment to outside scrutiny. "Once again the Prime Minister has been prepared to tear up the rule book he himself wrote on appointments to the House of Lords after the Wakeham Commission," she said. "Prime Ministerial patronage is alive and well. This does not augur well for the treatment of Parliament and the democratic process of the new Government."

Mr Blair has already sidelined the Appointments Commission by seizing back patronage powers to appoint independent peers. He had promised that the commission alone would be responsible for appointing independent "people's peers". But he has decided instead to retain the right to appoint as many independent peers as he likes. In a written answer on May 10, Baroness Jay of Paddington, the former Lords leader, said Mr Blair would still be able to appoint a limited number of "holders of high office".