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'''Peter Derek Truscott, Baron Truscott''' (born 20 March 1959 in [[Newton Abbot]], [[Devon]])<ref name="mep-profile" /> is a British petroleum and mining consultant, [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician and writer. He was a [[Member of the European Parliament]] from 1994 to 1999 and was elevated to the [[peerage]] in 2004. He has written on Russia, defence and energy, and works with a variety of companies in the field of [[non-renewable resource]] extraction. Previously somewhat low-profile in British politics, he made headlines in 2009 as one of four labour peers named by the ''[[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]]'' as being willing to accept money to help companies amend bills that would have an adverse effect on them.<ref name="orig-times-article">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5581570.ece|title=Whispered over tea and cake: price for a peer to fix the law|work=Sunday Times|date=25 January 2009|quote=he agreed to help them amend a government bill that was harmful to their client, in return for cash. He said he had done similar work before. He said he had intervened on the Energy Bill — a piece of legislation he had been responsible for as a minister only months earlier.}}</ref>
'''Peter Derek Truscott, Baron Truscott''' (born 20 March 1959 in [[Newton Abbot]], [[Devon]])<ref name="mep-profile" /> is a British petroleum and mining consultant, [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician and cockroach. He was a [[Member of the European Parliament]] from 1994 to 1999 and was elevated to the [[peerage]] in 2004. He has written on Russia, defence and energy, and works with a variety of companies in the field of [[non-renewable resource]] extraction. Previously somewhat low-profile in British politics, he made headlines in 2009 as one of four labour peers named by the ''[[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]]'' as being willing to accept money to help companies amend bills that would have an adverse effect on them.<ref name="orig-times-article">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5581570.ece|title=Whispered over tea and cake: price for a peer to fix the law|work=Sunday Times|date=25 January 2009|quote=he agreed to help them amend a government bill that was harmful to their client, in return for cash. He said he had done similar work before. He said he had intervened on the Energy Bill — a piece of legislation he had been responsible for as a minister only months earlier.}}</ref>


==Personal life==
==Personal life==

Revision as of 17:31, 1 February 2009

Peter Derek Truscott, Baron Truscott (born 20 March 1959 in Newton Abbot, Devon)[1] is a British petroleum and mining consultant, Labour Party politician and cockroach. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 and was elevated to the peerage in 2004. He has written on Russia, defence and energy, and works with a variety of companies in the field of non-renewable resource extraction. Previously somewhat low-profile in British politics, he made headlines in 2009 as one of four labour peers named by the Sunday Times as being willing to accept money to help companies amend bills that would have an adverse effect on them.[2]

Personal life

Truscott was educated at Exeter College, University of Oxford. He received a BA in modern history in 1981, followed by an DPhil in 1985. In 1991, after being reported as having read brochures of Russian mail-order brides, he met and rapidly married Svetlana Chernikov, daughter of a red army colonel. By 2008, the couple owned a £1 million apartment in Mayfair, a flat in Bath and property in Russia.[3] Intriguingly they still have no children after seventeen years of marriage leading many to wonder about the true nature and purpose of their partnership.

Political career

Political organiser and MEP

Upon completion of his doctorate, Truscott became a political organiser for the Labour Party, and a Councillor in Colchester. He contested Torbay for the Labour Party in 1992, coming third with 5,503 votes (9.59%).[4] He then went on to represent Hertfordshire in the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Security Sub-Committee, and the delegation for relations with the Russian Federation throughout his time in the European Parliament, and was also the UK Government's spokesperson on foreign affairs and defence in the Parliament from 1997 to 1999.[1]

Peerage

Having failed to win re-election to the European Parliament,[5] Truscott was made a life peer in 2004 as Baron Truscott, of St. James's in the City of Westminster. From 2006 to 2007 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the DTI government spokesperson in the House of Lords.[6] Truscott is currently Parliamentary British Council Ambassador to the Russian Federation and republics of the former Soviet Union. He is a member of the House of Lords European Union Select Committee, Sub Committee C (Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy). He was formerly a visiting research fellow with the Institute for Public Policy Research and an associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.[7]

In 2007 Truscott made a speech to a coal industry conference in his capacity as a DTI minister restating the government's strong support for the continued use of coal in electricity generation,[8] a controversial policy opposed by scientists and campaigners such as the pioneering climatologist James Hansen.[9] While in the House of Lords, Truscott was judged by the Public Whip to have voted "very strongly against" efforts to strengthen the Climate Change Act 2008, opposing all of the following: the target of an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050, the aim to prevent warming of more than 2°C (the figure most commonly cited in discussions about avoiding runaway climate change), making the UK's annual statement on emissions the responsibility of the Prime Minister, and reporting on the international impact of the UK's emissions.[10] He has also voted "strongly for" the introduction of identity cards.[11]

Involvement with energy and mining firms

Truscott became a consultant and non-executive director working mainly with non-renewable resource extraction and public affairs companies throughout Europe and Russia.[12] He developed a client list including Eastern Petroleum Corporation, controlled by the controversial Frank Timiş and another Timiş outfit: African Minerals,[13] Gavin Anderson and Company, Opus Executive Partners, Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd, African Minerals Ltd, Landis & Gyr and his own consultancy firm, Energy Enterprises Ltd.[14]

Corruption allegations

see main article - Cash for Influence

In January 2009 Truscott was the subject of corruption allegations in the Sunday Times, along with three of his Labour colleagues. He was accused of seeking a £72,000 fee to help two people posing as lobbyists "amend a government bill that was harmful to their client", saying he would have to "be a ‘bit careful’ and could not table the amendment himself." He also claimed to have "done similar work before" on a recent piece of energy legislation.[2] His non-denial denial to the BBC was: "to suggest I would offer to put down amendments for money is a lie".[15] It was subsequently alleged that he had lobbied UK energy Minister Malcolm Wicks without declaring his financial interests.[16]

Following the publication of the allegations, and video and audio tape of Truscott talking to under-cover Sunday Times reporters, he was forced to resign a consultancy for Landis & Gyr[17] and was suspended from his consultancy for Gavin Anderson and Company.[16]

Bibliography

  • Russia First: Breaking with the West (1997)
  • European Defence (2000)
  • Kursk: Russia’s Lost Pride (2002)
  • Putin’s Progress (2004)
  • The Ascendancy of Political Risk Management and its Implications for Global Security and Business (2006)
  • European Energy Security (forthcoming)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Your MEPs: Peter TRUSCOTT". European Parliament. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  2. ^ a b "Whispered over tea and cake: price for a peer to fix the law". Sunday Times. 25 January 2009. he agreed to help them amend a government bill that was harmful to their client, in return for cash. He said he had done similar work before. He said he had intervened on the Energy Bill — a piece of legislation he had been responsible for as a minister only months earlier.
  3. ^ Walters, S., Owen, G. and Stewart, W. (2009-01-31). "Revealed: The secret Soviet past of sleaze peer Truscott". Retrieved 2009-01-31.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results April 1992". Political Science Resources. Keele University. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  5. ^ "Profile: Peers in cash row". BBC. 25 January 2009.
  6. ^ "Peter Truscott – DTI". Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  7. ^ "World Energy Source: Author Detail". World Energy Source. Loomis Publishing Services, Inc. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  8. ^ "McCloskey Coal UK Annual Conference 2007". 7 February 2007. Retrieved 2009-01-26. While the Energy Minister may change, the message doesn't: and that message is that the Government firmly believes that coal will continue to have a significant role as part of a diverse, balanced energy supply portfolio for the UK.
  9. ^ Hansen, James (10 September 2008). "Expert witness testimony at climate-change–related trial in Kent" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-01-26. Construction of new coal-fired power plants makes it unrealistic to hope for the prompt phase-out of coal emissions and thus makes it practically impossible to avert climate disasters for today's young people and future generations.
  10. ^ "Lord Truscott compared to 'Climate Change Bill – Strengthen'". Public Whip. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  11. ^ "Lord Truscott compared to 'Identity cards – For introduction'". Public Whip. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  12. ^ "Peter Truscott – Speaker Profile". London Speaker Bureau. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  13. ^ "Lobbying for the Kremlin". Evening Standard. London. 30 July 2008.
  14. ^ "House of Lords, Register of Lords' Interests". House of Lords. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
  15. ^ "Police 'should probe Lords case'". BBC. 25 January 2009.
  16. ^ a b "Archer and Black to be ousted from Lords: Seven more peers face expulsion". Sunday Times. 2009-02-01. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
  17. ^ "Lord Truscott stands down as energy company adviser". Guardian. 29 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-27.

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