SIR William Haughey, Labour's newest Scottish peer, has expressed excitement about his forthcoming role in the House of Lords, but declined to comment on claims the system that allowed big donors such as himself to become peers has polluted politics.
The 57-year-old Glaswegian entrepreneur and philanthropist described himself as "modern Labour" and stressed there were matters such as youth unemployment that he wanted to raise on entering the Lords in the autumn.
Sir William, who has given £1.3 million to Labour since 2003, mainly to promote the policy of academy schools under the Blair government, explained his nomination for a peerage was not something for which he had been pushing, but came as a surprise.
He said: "I was just contacted by Ed Miliband's office, who wondered whether I would be willing to be put forward. I said I would be honoured; it was as simple as that. Obviously, I'm very humbled by it and am looking forward to it with excitement."
Asked to comment about the claim by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott, who said: "Cash for peerages pollutes Parliament and political parties who collude in this," Sir William declined to be drawn, saying only: "I have no comment to make on that at all."
Yesterday, Lord Oakeshott called on Nick Clegg to "take a lead, call in the other two parties, talk to them about it and shame people". A source close to the Deputy Prime Minister said Lord Oakeshott was right to say the way political parties were funded needed top-to-bottom reform and that no-one had tried harder to accomplish this than the LibDems in government, but stressed "as so often happened before, the vested interests in both the Labour and Conservative parties have scuppered reform".
Sir William, whose personal fortune is estimated at £150m, chairs City Refrigeration Holdings, which employs 11,000 people around the world.
Last year, the former director of Celtic Football Club was knighted for his service to business and philanthropy. In 2010, he created the City Charitable Trust, which has given £5m to charity. Much of the money has gone to Glasgow-based causes.
The entrepreneur made it clear getting young people back to work would be a priority in his new role.
"I have been campaigning for a number of years on youth unemployment and for more and more apprenticeships," he said. "That's what I want to get involved in. Youth unemployment will be at the top of my agenda."
Asked about his views on Scottish independence, he stressed that thus far he had kept out of the debate, but would consult with friends before making any definitive statements.
The businessman, on holiday in Majorca, indicated there would be a number of matters on which he would be willing to comment in the next few months, but would do so only after due consideration and talking to colleagues.
He said he had squared his ennoblement with his wife Susan. She had made it clear she would be happy with whichever decision he made.
Asked if he might choose the title of Lord Haughey of Parkhead, he pointed out that Ian Livingston, the outgoing BT chief whom David Cameron recently appointed a trade minister, had already adopted the Parkhead distinction as he was a director of Celtic.
The club's interests in the Lords look set to be well catered for, as also on the red benches is Lord Reid of Cardowan, who, until 2011, was Celtic's chairman.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article