NEWS STORY : ‘Government Pays!’: Hereditary Peer Earl of Shrewsbury Faces Renewed Scrutiny Over Misuse of Public Funds

STORY

The Earl of Shrewsbury, a Conservative hereditary peer previously suspended from the House of Lords for breaching lobbying rules, is once again under scrutiny following revelations about erroneous claims for taxpayer-funded travel expenses used for private business.

According to a report by The Guardian, Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, the 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury, admitted to mistakenly claiming travel and mileage expenses in January 2024. Notably, he used a 14-day first-class rail ticket – intended solely for parliamentary duties – to attend a board meeting of Cheshire Land, a commercial property development company where he serves as a non-executive director. In an email to colleagues, he jested, “government pays” for his travel.

Further investigations revealed that Shrewsbury claimed mileage for four car journeys he could not have made, amounting to £54. These actions potentially breach the House of Lords’ strict rules, which limit expense claims to parliamentary business only. Shrewsbury has offered to reimburse the taxpayer for the erroneous claims, stating that the errors were made in good faith. He emphasised that he only used the taxpayer-funded rail pass for non-parliamentary purposes once and cited age and disability as reasons for requiring first-class travel.

This incident follows his 2023 nine-month suspension from the Lords after it was revealed he received £57,000 from a healthcare firm for lobbying—a violation deemed a serious breach of conduct by the Lords’ watchdog.