A Labour member of the House of Lords offered access to ministers during discussions about a commercial deal worth tens of thousands of pounds, an undercover investigation can reveal.
Lord David Evans of Watford, 82, was recorded also explaining to undercover reporters – who were posing as property developers looking to lobby the government – on how to approach Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary.
The peer said he was prepared to support the developers because he was keen to help the government build much-needed houses. But he appeared willing to break Lords rules by offering access to ministers and other peers during discussions with the fake developers concerning sponsorship of a commercial event in parliament run by his son, a deal that cost £25,000.
“It’s great being a Labour peer at the moment because we’ve got our mates who now have senior jobs, which is wonderful,” Lord Evans said.
He said the way to reach Rayner was not “directly” but through a more junior housing minister to get “the lower ranks, so to speak, on side”.
The undercover reporters posed as representatives of property investors who wanted to turn old department stores into homes. Legislation introduced by the Conservative government simplified the planning rules on such conversions, and there are tax breaks for such a change of use. The reporters told the peer they wanted to ensure the Labour government retained these rules.
An online meeting with Lord Evans took place six days before Christmas. It followed weeks of messages and two earlier Zoom calls with his son, Richard Evans, about the sponsorship.
During these earlier discussions, Richard, 56, proposed creating opportunities, alongside the event, to meet ministers in parliament. He made it clear the payment of £25,000 to his company for the sponsorship had to happen first.
He stated on several occasions that his father had done nothing wrong. He also suggested in one online meeting: “There’s nothing untoward about [the proposal]. It’s basically thinking creatively.”
Over a series of calls he implied several times that the deal could be viewed the wrong way, at one point saying he could not write anything down as his proposal “looks dodgy”.
The House of Lords event at the heart of the discussions is one of at least four run by his son through a company in which Lord Evans holds a third of the shares. All four of the events were or are due to be hosted by the peer, and parliamentarians are advertised as attending. Two have already taken place.
Rules ban peers from exploiting their membership of the Lords. While there are grey zones in the rules, peers must follow key principles, including a requirement to act as parliamentarians on their “personal honour”.
There are also rules barring peers from hosting for-profit events in parliament.
Dr Jonathan Rose, a political integrity expert at De Montfort University who reviewed the evidence, said the Guardian’s findings warranted investigation as he believed Lord Evans’ involvement with the venture appeared to be a breach of these rules.
He said Lord Evans’ offers of access seemed “corrupt” as in his view it would be an inappropriate “abuse of power, by virtue of him being a member of the House of Lords, for the benefit of his son, and his own benefit”. Lord Evans is a one-third shareholder in his son’s company. There is no suggestion of illegality.
The event discussed with the undercover reporters is scheduled to take place in March and Richard, who runs the company behind the venture, is advertising for a platinum sponsor at a cost of £25,000.
Lord Evans told the Guardian he had not acted corruptly. He said: “To my knowledge, I have not broken any House of Lords rules and I have NOT taken any personal benefits.”
He added: “I would NOT and I do NOT accept payments for hosting any House of Lords events.” He said he had never approached Rayner to speak at any event.
Richard said the venture was not “profit-driven” but a “commitment to strengthening the construction industry”.
The investigation is part of a wider series by the Guardian, called the Lords debate, examining the workings of the upper chamber and its members. It is being published against the backdrop of moves by the Labour government to raise standards and reduce the size of the House of Lords.
While Lord Evans has not received any payments in connection with the events, the revelation that a member of the Lords is involved with what appears to amount to a cash-for-access venture raises questions about standards in parliament.
‘We are looking for a sponsor’
Parliament’s Cholmondeley Room, a marquee on the terrace overlooking the Thames, was busy when the Guardian’s undercover reporter arrived.
Promoting the November lunch, Richard, who uses the title “the honourable”, had keenly advertised on LinkedIn the “AI in Construction” event as “the opportunity for everyone to network at the highest level”. He called for readers to “sponsor this powerful event now!” and shared a document filled with pictures of parliament and details of sponsorship opportunities, including a platinum level, for £25,000.
Printed alongside was: “The Lord David Charles Evans of Watford is fully onboard supporting this initiative. Ministers and members of the House of Lords invited shall be confirmed shortly.”
To find out more about Lord Evans’ involvement in the events, one of the undercover reporters, posing as a marketing adviser to a group of property investors, paid £600 for access to the November lunch. The ticket was described as a complimentary part of membership of Affinity, a network to enable collaboration.
Over drinks before lunch, the reporter suggested to Lord Evans that a client could be interested in sponsoring future events. Lord Evans said they should speak to his son, and immediately made an introduction.
As the lunch wrapped up, Richard got up to promote “our next House of Lords event” in March 2025. “We are looking for a sponsor, hint hint, to make these amazing events happen, without mentioning names,” he said.
He finished: “But seriously, this is about collaboration, bringing great people together and doing business.”
The next day, Richard emailed the undercover reporter to propose a meeting.
‘There’s nothing untoward about it, it’s basically thinking creatively’
Speaking over Zoom from a cafe in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where he lives, Richard asked what the reporter’s client would be looking for from an event. Within three minutes, Richard referred to a company that had already agreed to sponsor three events in parliament at £25,000 each.
Richard was eager to show his father’s involvement and suggested he needed a steer for the event so he could answer the question “when Dad says ‘what minister do you want me to get?’”.
He added: “If I look at housing, then we would – I mean, the ideal scenario is to get Angela Rayner there.”
Later in the meeting, he said: “Before the event we start introducing […], there’s nothing untoward about it. It’s basically thinking creatively.”
Richard made a proposal to hold a separate meeting in a Lords committee room, to which he would invite ministers and the property developer. He suggested a debate on housing. “My father would come. He would make a speech because he gets really upset about it all.”
Richard said his father was keen to propose to Rayner an idea to create a £5bn investment fund for housebuilding. Richard suggested the property developer could join forces with Lord Evans, and he explained how his father was hoping to pitch his plan to Rayner.
“My dad – his first step with Rachel Reeves and Rachel Reeves would introduce to Angela Rayner. He’s focused on getting a meeting with Angela Rayner’s office because he wants to pitch his idea,” he said.
Richard also suggested Roy Kennedy, the Lords chief whip, may assist in getting Rayner to attend the meeting. He said: “Roy Kennedy has promised to introduce Angela Rayner. So if we had Angela Rayner – sorry, if we had Roy Kennedy, who could speak as the key speaker. And if he could convince her to come to that committee room meeting just to pop in, then we start the ball rolling. You know, it’s a bit like dating, you know?”
A spokesperson for Kennedy told the Guardian: “At no point did Roy agree to any of this – in fact, he was never asked.”
Richard was clear that these proposed introductions to senior government figures in committee room meetings would come after a sponsorship deal for the bigger event was signed and payment made – a platinum sponsorship, as he wrote directly to the reporter later that afternoon.
‘Can you imagine if the press got hold of that?’
Two weeks before Christmas, Richard suggested in a WhatsApp message a catchup call. In an email, the undercover reporter said his client wanted a meeting with Richard and his father. Richard replied that the meeting would be “firstly with just me for several reasons”. He followed up with a voice memo.
“I have to be incredibly sensitive, the subjects we’re talking about, because we’re moving from sponsoring an event to arranging a committee room,” he said. “Can you imagine if the press got hold of that? It’s got nothing to do with my father anyway, in the sense of me organising it all. He will not come on a call if we’re going to be talking about sponsorship and money.”
Later, Richard told the reporter he had spoken to his father. According to Richard, Lord Evans said he had lined up Richard Harrington, a peer and former Conservative minister, to speak at the wider March event.
‘It looks dodgy’
In a video call on 17 December to discuss meeting Lord Evans, Richard said his father had outlined a route to Rayner to discuss his £5bn housing fund proposal, and he repeated his earlier suggestion to include the sponsor in these discussions.
He said: “He’s gone through Roy Kennedy and he’s also going through Richard Harrington. He’s going through – and he will get there in the end because that is politics.”
Richard suggested he and his father could work to try to get Matthew Pennycook MP, a housing and planning minister, to the March event. “We will try to get him there,” he said. “I’ll talk to Dad again.”
He warned they had to be careful. They needed to keep the sponsorship of the main event separate from the committee room meeting, he said. Lord Evans later told the Guardian he was only involved in organising a speaker for the main event.
Richard continued: “I think that we should stick to – without getting ourselves into deep water. One is we’re delivering an event.
“And from that, it’s going to lead on to committee room meetings. That’s it. I cannot put that in writing. Like if you do this, you will get that. It’s really – you know, it looks dodgy.”
But first, “we want to come to an agreement now and we want to sort out payment now, now, right, before Christmas,” he added.
Following their discussion, Richard confirmed by WhatsApp after a question from the reporter that the price of the sponsorship was £25,000 plus VAT. At the reporter’s request, he organised an online meeting with his father, to be held two days later.
Confirming this in a voice message, Richard said: “My dad doesn’t gain financially at all from this and he’s just helping me out and helping me achieve my mission to provide a platform.”
‘Our mates who now have senior jobs’
Six days before Christmas, the second undercover reporter, posing as the frontman of the property investors, dialled in to speak with Lord Evans from the back of a taxi.
According to his son, Lord Evans had been nervous before the meeting: “He thinks it could be the Guardian.”
But once on the call, Lord Evans spoke openly about what he could offer in terms of access to parliamentarians and ministers. As the undercover reporter explained that they were seeking the opportunity to “have our voice heard” to ensure planning and VAT rules were not changed, Lord Evans took notes.
“This will give you the opportunity to say exactly that,” Lord Evans said. “Because, I mean, as you know, it’s Richard’s event. I host it on the political side.”
Then, Lord Evans spoke about his support for the government’s objective to build more homes, and said he had been proposing to the Cabinet Office that it create a fund to encourage foreign investment to build social housing.
He added: “I’m very, very happy to support you. And I can introduce you. We’ll have some senior people there, including Richard Harrington, who’s doing a report, you may know, on housing and has worked on it, and I’m seeing him in early January to talk about it.”
He continued: “We’ll invite the housing minister and some friends on the – in the ministerial – I mean, it’s great being a Labour peer at the moment, because we’ve got our mates who now have senior jobs, which is wonderful.”
When asked if any potential competitors would be invited to the event, Lord Evans said: “Richard has the financial side.”
Richard then said: “They’re not going to get into our network even if they were there. Because that’s not the way it works.”
He added: “We invoice now and would appreciate payment by return.” Later in the call, he said work could start as soon as payment was received. “I’m the one that’s going to get the people there and make it happen. And obviously Dad’s helping, but he’s from a political angle, I’m the commercial angle. So we just happen to unite.”
On the subject of Rayner, the reporter posing as the marketing consultant said he had told the property investors they would not be meeting her the next day.
Lord Evans agreed Rayner was a key person and said: “And I think the route is through the housing minister rather than going directly with her. Get the lower ranks, so to speak, on side, which I’m sure they are because they all know what we’re up against.”
He continued: “It’s well publicised and we’re – the ideas I’ve got will overcome that. And when I – when we meet in January, early February, I’ll explain it to you properly.” Lord Evans later extended the invitation for this lunch to both undercover reporters, and wished them a good Christmas.
Richard Evans is not bound by the House of Lords rules, and when approached for comment he told the Guardian that “a variety of people” would be invited to the committee room “‘concept’” to “facilitate the exchange of ideas with housebuilders”. He said the Affinity events in parliament were “educative”, with 90% of attenders on gifted places.
He said the £25,000 sponsorship deal “extends beyond covering the cost of event delivery – it includes ongoing marketing support for our sponsors”.
He added: “Ministers are invited to speak briefly (typically six to 10 minutes) to update guests on a latest government news at these educational events, before returning to their busy schedules.”
Lord Evans said he was not involved in cash for access. He said he was “NOT involved in the commercial side of the event and only interested in the political objective of building more social housing”. He said his conversations with the undercover reporters were about organising a speaker for the March event.
He said he had “totally forgotten” he had shares in the company and had never taken any money from it.
The next day the reporters pulled out of the deal. Richard has continued to seek sponsors for more events in the Lords.
Weeks after speaking to the undercover reporters, Lord Harrington was advertised as the speaker at the March event. However, on Monday, when contacted by the Guardian, he pulled out.
He said: “I was personally asked by Lord Evans to speak at an event on foreign direct investment.”
He added: “Given the information that has been presented, I will no longer be attending the event.”
A new brochure promoting the event has also been published on LinkedIn. It no longer features any reference to Lord Evans.
