House of Lords peers facing axe under new attendance rules - including David Cameron and Alan Sugar

House of Lords peers facing axe under new attendance rules - including David Cameron and Alan Sugar The findings came after the Mirror conducted an analysis of official attendance records, after the House of Lords Retirement and Participation Committee recommended raising the attendance threshold to 20% of sitting days Top Tories David Cameron, Michael Heseltine and Philip Hammond are among at least 109 peers who face being kicked out of the House of Lords if newly proposed attendance rules are approved. Former Prime Minister Cameron, 59, ex-deputy Prime Minister Heseltine, 93, and former Chancellor Hammond, 70, have all attended fewer than one in five of days during the last two parliamentary sessions, according to the latest House of Lords records. Former Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson, 47, and the party’s former London mayor candidate Zac Goldsmith, 51, have too fallen below the proposed cut-off, meaning they would also face being axed if recommendations requiring members to attend at least 20% of sitting days were implemented. Analysis by the Sunday Mirror found other well-known peers who have attendance marks fewer than 20% include Apprentice boss Alan Sugar, 79, cricket legend Ian Botham, 70, and newspaper proprietor Evgeny Lebedev, 46, with official figures revealing they were present at just 1% of all recorded sittings between November 2023 and February 2026. Reacting to our findings, veteran former minister Lord George Foulkes, 84, said he strongly supported the new proposals. He told us: “The Lords is the second chamber of our legislature and deals in detail with all bills like the Commons, scrutinises the government and has influential committees. “Membership should be seen as a job and peers as working peers. Unfortunately it is also seen as an honour and that should be stopped, members required to attend and contribute, and those unable or unwilling to do so removed.” We examined House of Lords attendance data to work out how many days each of the current eligible 772 peers had attended over the past two parliamentary sessions, up to and including February 2026, which are the most recent figures available. We did not include peers who joined the House of Lords after the end of November 2023, which is when the first of the two sessions began, or anyone currently on Leave of Absence or ineligible to sit. According to the latest published figures, Lord Cameron, who was Prime Minister from 2010 until he stood down after losing the EU referendum in 2016, had attended the House of Lords on 56 days of a possible 369 (15.1%) since his appointment in November 2023. His introduction came at the same time he returned to front-line politics as foreign secretary under then PM Rishi Sunak, meaning his attendance could have been affected by work trips abroad and other duties related to his ministerial role - which lasted less than nine months. All of the other peers included in our analysis were members of the House of Lords from the beginning of the parliamentary session, meaning they could have attended up to 376 sittings from November 7, 2023, up until February 28 this year. Lord Heseltine was a prominent figure in both Margaret Thatcher and John Major’s governments. He served as Deputy Prime Minister under Major between 1995 and 1997 before entering the Lords in July 2001, after retiring as MP for Henley. Records say he attended the House of Lords on 14 days - 3.7% - during the relevant period. Lord Hammond, formally known as Baron Hammond of Runnymede, was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019 and Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016. He also previously served as Defence Secretary from 2011 to 2014 and Transport Secretary from 2010 to 2011 before entering the Lords in September 2020. House of Lords records say he attended the House of Lords on 17 days - 4.5% - between November 2023 and February 2026. According to the official statistics, Ruth Davidson attended on 25 days - 6.6% - during the same period, while Goldsmith was present on 23 days - 6.1%. Lord Sugar was recorded as having attended on four days - 1%. He was on an agreed leave of absence from the Lords between October 6 last year and April 29 this year, meaning he was away for a total of 66 of the 376 sitting days during the analysed period. Lord Botham, known as Beefy during his time as England cricket captain, entered the Lords in 2020 after being appointed by Boris Johnson. He attended the House of Lords on four days - 1.3% - during the same period, according to records. Lord Lebedev, who was also controversially appointed by Johnson and is formally known as Lord Lebedev of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Siberia in the Russian Federation, was recorded as attending on five days - 1.3%. Other well-known names that House of Lords records say have fallen below the 20% mark during the same period include former Bank of England governor Mervyn King, now known as Baron King of Lothbury, and former British ambassador Kim Darroch, who is Baron Darroch of Kew. Records show Lord King, 78, attended on eight days - 2.1% - while Lord Darroch, 72, attended on 26 days - 6.9%. Labour donor Waheed Alli, 61, also fell below the 20% mark, according to records, attending on 71 days - 18.8%. Former First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, 59, known as Baroness Morgan of Ely, was recorded as having not attended at all during the relevant period. House of Lords officials said members’ attendance - whether in the Chamber, the Grand Committee, or in Select Committees - was recorded by staff. Members who vote in a division were also automatically recorded as attending on that day. It is claimed some attendance could go unrecorded if peers who do not claim the £371 daily allowance, or expenses, do not formally register their attendance with staff. Labour pledged to reduce the size of the House of Lords, which is the second-largest legislative chamber in the world, smaller only than China’s National People’s Congress. In a report published last week, the House of Lords Retirement and Participation Committee recommended increasing the attendance threshold to 20% of sitting days, averaged out over two sessions, after being instructed to look into the issue by the government. Currently peers are required to attend the House of Lords just once in a parliamentary session, but the committee say this is “too low and reform is necessary”. Committee chair Baroness Taylor of Bolton said the move and a recommendation to cap the retirement age at 80 are a “practical solution” that would ensure the “continued effective functioning of the House”. The Committee recommended that a new retirement age of 80 should apply to all existing members “without exception”. However, it said that in order to avoid a “cliff edge” with several peers leaving at the same time, the retirement threshold should be phased in gradually. Under the proposals, the latest age at which a peer should retire would be set at 85 from July 8, 2029, and then reduced by one year annually eventually reaching 80 by July 2034. New members would be asked to agree in writing that they would retire by their 80th birthday. A House of Lords briefing has estimated that by July 2029, 301 life peers will be aged over 80. The average age of peers is currently 70. The attendance plan announcement came after 92 hereditary peers were kicked out of the Lords at the end of April after they were formally abolished. Speaking about the proposed new reforms, a government spokesperson said: “Introducing a retirement age and participation requirement to the House of Lords is a manifesto commitment, and we will therefore carefully consider the committee’s recommendations ahead of the government’s response later this year.”