Gustafsson was unveiled only three days before the event, and there are now questions about whether full due diligence could have realistically been carried during this sped-up process.
HOLAC, which vets Lords appointments, raised concerns in 2023 that it needed to guard against any suggestion of “rubber stamping” appointments “without sufficient scrutiny” following the separate move to bring in ex-Prime Minister David Cameron to the House of Lords to serve as Rishi Sunak’s foreign secretary.
A House of Lords Appointments Commission spokesperson said in a statement: “When vetting ministerial peerages for propriety, HOLAC carries out all its usual checks with departments and agencies, albeit on an expedited timescale.
“The Commission would not provide advice supporting a candidate if it was not able to complete vetting.”
No.10 Downing Street, the Department for Business and Trade and the U.K. Cabinet Office — which oversees propriety and ethics in Whitehall — declined to answer a series of questions from POLITICO on the process of appointing the new minister.
Susan Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption said: “It is long overdue for the House of Lords Appointment Commission to be given a statutory and independent role in screening and approving peerages.”
She warned: “Bouncing HOLAC into appointments and shortcutting vetting processes is always going to be a recipe for reputational issues to emerge later down the line.”
Holden, the Conservative spokesperson, said: “It’s time for the prime minister to answer the serious questions hanging over this appointment.”
