Peter Lilley

Lord Lilley     (politician)
Born	1943-08-23 Hayes, Kent, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Clare College (Cambridge)
Spouse	Gail
Interests	• Idox Elections • Gerald James
Party	Conservative
Tory politician in charge of entire Scottish council election count  Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party In office 11 June 1997 - 15 June 1999 Boss William Hague  Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer  In office 11 June 1997 - 2 June 1998 Preceded by Kenneth Clarke Succeeded by Francis Maude  Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security  In office 2 May 1997 - 11 June 1997 Preceded by Harriet Harman  Secretary of State for Social Security  In office 8 April 1992 - 2 May 1997 Succeeded by Harriet Harman  Secretary of State for Trade and Industry  In office 14 July 1990 - 11 April 1992 Preceded by Nicholas Ridley Succeeded by Michael Heseltine  UK/Financial Secretary to the Treasury  In office 24 July 1989 - 28 November 1990 Preceded by Norman Lamont Succeeded by Francis Maude  Economic Secretary to the Treasury  In office 11 June 1987 - 24 July 1989  Member of Parliament for Hitchin and Harpenden In office 9 June 1983 - 3 May 2017  President of the Board of Trade  In office 14 July 1990 - 11 April 1992 Succeeded by Michael Heseltine  Member of Parliament for St Albans In office 9 June 1983 - 1 May 1997

Peter Lilley was used by Stephan Kock and MI6/MI5 to institute a DTI Inquiry in an effort to stop Gerald James and his Arms-to-Iraq revelations.

Career

In charge of postal votes

In May 2016 concerns were raised with the Electoral Commission about the involvement with Idox Elections of former Tory Cabinet minister Peter Lilley, who is a senior non-executive director. When appointed as a director, during the infancy of the firm, executives told shareholders he “brings with him a wealth of experience of central and local government, which we believe will be of considerable benefit to the group, especially as it seeks to achieve an increasingly strategic role with both local and central government”.

Objectors have questioned the rationale of awarding contracts to Idox when it has links to one political party, and about the “creeping privatisation” of elections. One objector who has lodged a complaint said:

“Elections should be free of any issue that might raise any questions.”

Chris Highcock of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland said:

“Idox is one of a number of companies that supplies various support to returning officers across Scotland, and indeed the UK, as they deliver elections.

“Such suppliers provide services including, for example, the printing of ballot papers and poll cards. All such contracts are awarded by the individual returning officers on the basis of what will provide the best value and quality with the interests of the voter always at the heart of all our activities and contracts.”

After one concerned person asked about the use of “Peter Lilley’s firm”, the Scottish Government responded:

“The awarding of contracts to Idox, or other commercial companies, was a matter for individual counting officers to decide. The Scottish Government was not involved in this process.”

Brexit "intelligence"

In January 2018 Channel 4 secretly recorded Peter Lilley with Andrew Lansley and Andrew Mitchell offering to sell Brexit intelligence to actors who posed as Chinese businessmen hoping to hire them to make money out of Britain leaving the EU. This was a front page story in the Sunday Times of 28 January 2018.

Lord Lilley

In May 2018, he was nominated for a peerage in the House of Lords and was ennobled as Baron Lilley of Offa a month later.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Tory in Charge of Entire Scottish Council Election Count	Article	29 April 2017	Mel Kelly	Being a software engineer myself, my first thought was - could this be easily used to print replacement postal votes with the voters' ID and their signature, changing our vote for a different candidate while binning your postal vote? I had to conclude yes it could.

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