# Jack Straw denied knighthood and peerage **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 12, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903 "2016-02-12T04:37:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/1 "2016-02-12T04:37:57Z")
[The _Guardian_ reports](http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/09/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-peerage-jeremy-corbyn) > [@](#): > > Having served as home secretary, foreign secretary and then lord chancellor, Straw is understood to have been lined up for a seat in the Lords during the final days of Ed Miliband’s period as party leader. But he suspended himself from party membership last February after being secretly filmed by undercover reporters while apparently offering his services to a private company for cash. This prevented an offer of a peerage at the time. > > Although Straw was subsequently cleared of misconduct by the parliamentary standards watchdog, his chances of a seat in the Lords are said to have disappeared after Corbyn’s election as leader in September. > > “The chances of Jeremy awarding him with either a knighthood or a peerage are close to zero,” said one senior party source, before adding: “Actually, they are zero.” > > […] > > In December, Ofcom found that the reporting was of significant public interest and did not unfairly represent the two politicians. It also concluded that the undercover filming was “proportionate and warranted”. > > A damages claim is being brought against Straw by Abdel Hakim Belhaj, who was abducted in Thailand and flown to Tripoli along with his pregnant wife, Fatima Bouchar, in March 2004, with the assistance of MI6. Straw was foreign secretary at the time. > > A cache of secret documents that detailed the involvement of MI6’s then head of counter-terrorism, Mark Allen, in that rendition was discovered during the 2011 Libyan revolution. After Straw gave an interview to the BBC in which he said that “no foreign secretary can know all the details of what its intelligence agencies are doing at any one time”, well-placed sources told the Guardian that the rendition operations were “ministerially authorised government policy”. There seem to be several different things going on here. One, Straw was apparently engaged in influence peddling. Two, there’s some pushback against the reporters who revealed that. Three, his ministry was part of the Bush-era ‘extraordinary renditions.’ Four, whatever else Corbyn may have against him. Can Dopers who know more about Labour offer us their thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/2 "2016-02-12T07:27:25Z")
Nobody’s _entitled_ to any honour, and particularly not those recommended as the political equivalent of the retirement gold watch, even if they have come to be seen as the norm. Jack Straw has an unfortunate air of self-righteousness and self-importance anyway, and whatever the truth of any of the other matters pending, it would be shooting themselves in the foot to be recommending for honours someone with that amount of baggage around his neck. He’s damaged goods, and that’s all there is to it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/3 "2016-02-12T09:57:08Z")
He blotted his copybook, not only with influence peddling but also in the [expenses scandal](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6360729/Jack-Straw-tried-to-conceal-MPs-expenses.html) a few years back, and has a bad reputation on [Freedom of Information](http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/08/jack-straw-ministries-among-worst-freedom-of-information). And he appears to have committed the ultimate sin of falling out with the current Labour leader. Maybe the next Labour leader will have a different view? ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/4 "2016-02-12T11:08:10Z")
It’s about time that the House of Lords stopped being treated as a present for retiring senior MPs and starts becoming less of a politicians’ retirement home. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/5 "2016-02-12T14:09:58Z")
One man gone and another to go. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/6 "2016-02-12T14:50:13Z")
Good, he was part of the debacle of Iraq. I think that’s the main reason why he was denied a peerage. ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-straw-denied-knighthood-and-peerage/745903/7 "2016-02-12T14:59:53Z")
It is way past time for change in the Lords. to start with if they want their expenses then they have to put in a full 40 hours a week in the chamber, therefore stopping them from staying just long enough to sign in, that will thin the skivers out. as for Straw he has a wealth of experience to offer. Camoron should make him a Lord giving the labour leader the finger.