House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill [HL]

For the avoidance of doubt, and since the noble Lord was not there when I spoke, I was not for one moment suggesting that he had not. My example was entirely different, and was that those who make their living abroad should not be excluded from being Members of the House of Lords. There is an even more powerful point. An existing Member of the House of Lords may, having spent a few years, say, on the Front Bench, be offered a job running a great bank or something else overseas—perhaps not such a great bank—and under the terms of the Bill they would be excluded for life. It is on that idea, which we will return to in future amendments, about being excluded for life that we need to tease out from the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, exactly what he means.