He renounced his Canadian citizenship to sit in England’s House of Lords.But now the Brits have renounced Conrad Black, aka ‘Lord Black of Crossharbour’.In one of the first acts of England’s new Labour government, a half dozen members of the British parliament’s Second House — equivalent to the Canadian Senate — have been disbarred for various reasons but not limited to age.During the election, the Labour party committed to immediately removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords and impose retirement on existing members at the age of 80..In Black’s case, he was 79. Instead of his age, he was removed for non-attendance. Under Parliamentary rules, members have to show up for at least one session every six months to remain eligible to serve.There are no records of Lord Black ever having spoken in the Lords and he had not voted since 2003.The ex-proprietor of the Daily Telegraph served more than three years in prison after being convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007. The Canadian-born British citizen was pardoned by then-US president Donald Trump in 2019.Lord Black was the former head of Hollinger International, which once owned the Daily Telegraph, Chicago Sun-Times, Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers in the US and Canada. He was ‘ennobled’ in 2001, having renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a Conservative peer..Former deputy prime minister John Prescott is the most high-profile of the six, marking the end of a parliamentary career stretching back more than 50 years. Also included was one-time jailbird Jeffrey Archer.Official records show Prescott had only spoken once in the chamber since suffering a stroke in 2019 and he had not voted since February 2023.The former trade union activist served 10 years as Tony Blair’s deputy prime minister after Labour’s 1997 general election landslide..Archer had remained a member of the Lords despite being sentenced to four years in prison in 2001 after being found guilty of perjury and ‘perverting the course of justice’ in a previous libel case when he sued a tabloid over reports he gave money to a prostitute.There are no records of him ever having spoken in the chamber and he voted just five times; the last was in 2017.His only experience listed outside of Parliament was as a former president of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), a post he held from 1997-99.
