By Vivienne Russell
Local Government Association chair Dame Margaret Eaton is to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Eaton will take her seat on the Conservative benches where she will face one of her predecessors, Sir Jeremy Beecham. Beecham, a Newcastle councillor, chaired the LGA between 1997 and 2004 and has been made a Labour peer.
A total of 56 new life peers were announced last week. Other notable appointments include former home secretary and Conservative party leader Michael Howard, former Conservative environment secretary John Selwyn Gummer and Shireen Ritchie, a Kensington & Chelsea councillor who chairs the LGA’s children and young people board.
Among the Labour appointments to the Lords were former deputy prime minister John Prescott, and Paul Boateng and Des Browne, both of whom served as chief secretary to the Treasury during Tony Blair’s premiership. John McFall, the Labour MP who rose to prominence as chair of the Treasury select committee during the last Parliament, has also received a peerage.
Former MPs Matthew Taylor and Phil Willis were among nine new Liberal Democrat peers. The LibDem intake also includes Sir Ken Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, and ex-children’s television presenter Floella Benjamin.
Sir Ian Blair, who was commissioner of the Metropolitan Police until 2008, joins the House of Lords as a cross-bencher.
Local Government Association chair Dame Margaret Eaton is to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Eaton will take her seat on the Conservative benches where she will face one of her predecessors, Sir Jeremy Beecham. Beecham, a Newcastle councillor, chaired the LGA between 1997 and 2004 and has been made a Labour peer.
A total of 56 new life peers were announced last week. Other notable appointments include former home secretary and Conservative party leader Michael Howard, former Conservative environment secretary John Selwyn Gummer and Shireen Ritchie, a Kensington & Chelsea councillor who chairs the LGA’s children and young people board.
Among the Labour appointments to the Lords were former deputy prime minister John Prescott, and Paul Boateng and Des Browne, both of whom served as chief secretary to the Treasury during Tony Blair’s premiership. John McFall, the Labour MP who rose to prominence as chair of the Treasury select committee during the last Parliament, has also received a peerage.
Former MPs Matthew Taylor and Phil Willis were among nine new Liberal Democrat peers. The LibDem intake also includes Sir Ken Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, and ex-children’s television presenter Floella Benjamin.
Sir Ian Blair, who was commissioner of the Metropolitan Police until 2008, joins the House of Lords as a cross-bencher.
