Peers apologise, but deny wrongdoing, as Sunday Times releases audio

Sunday Times report: price for a peer to fix the law |

The Sunday Times today released segments from an audio recording in which a veteran Labour peer boasts to an undercover reporter about having helped a company amend legislation in Parliament.

The peer, Lord Taylor of Blackburn, also brags that some companies pay him as much as £100,000 a year to act as a fixer, adding: “That’s cheap for what I do for them.”

The recording was released shortly after Lord Taylor and a Labour colleague, Lord Snape of Wednesbury, stood up to defend their reputations during an emergency debate in the House of Lords into the Lords-for-hire scandal.

The Sunday Times said that four Labour peers offered to help their reporters when they