In 2022, the Conduct Committee recommended that he be suspended from the House of Lords for nine months for financial misconduct. Consequently, he could not play his customary role as the hereditary Lord High Steward of Ireland at the coronation of King Charles III. The Conservative whip was removed.
Shrewsbury joined the House of Lords when he succeeded to his father's peerages in 1980, at that time enjoying the automatic right to sit in parliament. He lost the right as a result of the reforms of the House of Lords Act 1999, but is one of the 92 hereditary peers elected at that time to sit in the Lords. He has served as a whip for the Conservatives.[1]
He is High Steward of Sheffield Cathedral, a former president of the Staffordshire Historic Churches Trust, patron or honorary president of a number of charities or voluntary bodies, and patron of ten Church of Englandbenefices.[1]
An enthusiastic supporter of country sports, Shrewsbury is a former president of the Gun Trade Association and remains deputy-chairman of the Standing Conference on Country Sports. He is a liveryman of three City of Londonlivery companies: the companies of Weavers, Gunmakers and Blacksmiths. He is a former chairman of the Firearms Consultative Committee at the Home Office, and former chairman and president of the British Shooting Sports Council. Shrewsbury has sold manorial titles.[4][5][6]
In April 2022, the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards began an investigation into an allegation that Shrewsbury had failed to comply with rules preventing peers from profiting financially from their membership of the Lords.[8] He was largely exonerated in May,[9] when the Commissioner concluded that he was guilty of a minor breach of the peers' Code of Conduct and ordered him to write a letter of apology.[10]
In August 2022, the House of Lords commissioners for standards launched a second investigation into Shrewsbury's dealings with SpectrumX,[11] a healthcare firm that had paid him £3,000 a month between the summer of 2020 and January 2022, after leaked documents revealed that he had boasted of "very considerable" potential to open doors for SpectrumX, through what he described as his "high-level contacts".[9]
In September 2022, the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists concluded that Shrewsbury had failed to register his company, Talbot Consulting Ltd, before contacting Lady Barran, a junior minister at the Department for Culture Media and Sport, and Alex Burghart, a junior education minister, regarding SpectrumX. The registrar found that Shrewsbury had contravened the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.[12]
In October 2022, it was revealed that Shrewsbury had failed to register that he was being paid by SpectrumX. This contradicted his earlier claims that he had reported his financial interest when promoting a SpectrumX product in 2021.[13] On 16 December 2022, the House of Lords Conduct Committee recommended that he be suspended from the House of Lords for nine months after being paid £57,000 over two years to lobby ministers and officials, which was described as "extremely serious" misconduct that damaged the reputation of the House of Lords.[14]
Family
On 5 January 1973, Shrewsbury married Deborah Jane Hutchinson, a daughter of Noel Staughton Hutchinson and Jenifer Hutchinson of Ellerton, Shropshire. They have three children:[1][2]
Victoria Chetwynd-Talbot (born 7 September 1975). Married Daniel Goodall in 2005 and has one child,
Charles Goodall (born 15 September 2006)
James Chetwynd-Talbot, Viscount Ingestre (born 11 January 1978). Married Polly Blackie of Debden, Essex, in 2006, and has four children:
Matilda Chetwynd-Talbot (born 3 November 2008)
Rose Chetwynd-Talbot (born 20 February 2010)
Flora Chetwynd-Talbot (born 30 September 2011)
George Chetwynd-Talbot (born 3 May 2013)
Edward Chetwynd-Talbot (born 18 September 1981). Married Rosie Myers of Scamblesby, Lincolnshire, in 2010; has one daughter:
^ abcdefghMontague-Smith, Patrick W., ed. (2008). "Shrewsbury and Waterford, Earl of (Chetwynd-Talbot) (Earl E 1442, I 1446, and GB 1784)". Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2008. London: Debrett's Peerage Limited.
^"Chancellor". University of Wolverhampton. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. The Honorary position of Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton was created following the grant of University title in 1992
