Former ‘Moat Man’ Grantham MP elevated to House of Lords

FORMER Grantham MP Douglas Hogg, who famously claimed expenses for cleaning out his moat,  has been handed a seat in the House of Lords as David Cameron gave peerages to long-serving Conservative frontbenchers and advisers.

The former agriculture minister claimed the £2,200 cost of having the moat at his country mansion, Kettlethorpe Hall,  cleared, but is among 45 new peerages announced today to mark the dissolution of the last Parliament.

Ex-Tory leader William Hague was among 26 Tory nominations and former Cabinet ministers David Blunkett, Alistair Darling, Peter Hain and Tessa Jowell were included in Labour’s list of 11.

Peers can claim £300 each day they turn up.

Hogg (70) the 3rd Viscount Hailsham. was Grantham’s Conservative MP from 1979 until boundary changes moved him to the Sleaford and North Hykeham constituency in 1997. He stepped down as an MP in 2010.

He married Sarah, daughter of John Boyd-Carpenter, in 1968 in Westminster . As his wife was created a life peeress, the Hailshams are one of the few couples to both hold noble titles in their own right.

For many years he lived at Honington, near Grantham, before moving to Kettlethorpe Hall, near Gainsborough, in the 1990s.

A barrister, he served in the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1995-97.

In 2009 when the Daily Telegraph exposed he had claimed more than £2,000 of taxpayers’ money for cleaning the moat at Kettlethorpe, he became one of the most prominent illustrations used by the media of the extent of the expenses scandal.

Although Hogg always maintained that the allegation was untrue, negative publicity discouraged him from seeking re-election at the 2010 general election.

Yet despite his intellect, his career has never really recovered from his close association with one of the greatest political disasters in history – as Minister for Agriculture under John Major at the height of the BSE crisis.

By the time the outbreak became a major issue in 1996 Douglas was hated by farmers as the architect of the crisis. Farmers protesting about the EU ban on British beef were regularly seen waving placards saying “Cull Hogg”.

In 1997 he was awarded a certificate of merit by the Vegetarian Society which said his handling of the beef crisis had led to a leap in the number of vegetarians.

Born in London in 1945, he was educated at Eton, Lincolns Inn and Christ Church, Oxford where he gained a degree in history. The fedora-wearing politician has always been on the soft-left of the Conservative Party supporting modest constitutional reform and outspoken in questioning the moral and strategic justification for war against Iraq.

As a Government Chief Whip there were calls for his sacking by groups of fellow Tories who objected to his browbeating style.

He admitted: “I’m combative, pugnacious and aggressive, as was Churchill and my father. The best politicians are.”

Yet despite his abrasive style, he was regarded an honest politician and a good constituency man.

But political journalist Simon Hoggart was less complimentary, describing him as “one of the rudest men in British politics, if not the entire world”.