Lord Black of Crossharbour could lose his peerage under laws being planned by Labour.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said that the Government was committed to bringing in a Bill that would ban convicted criminals from sitting in the House of Lords. Mr Straw said that the sooner the legislation was put on the statute book the better. He was speaking after Labour MPs questioned why Lord Black, jailed for 6½ years for fraud, should remain in the Lords.

At present MPs who are convicted of a criminal offence are immediately banned from the Commons. But peers are allowed to keep their seat, regardless of the severity of their crime.

Mr Straw said that Labour’s White Paper on House of Lords reform committed the Government to ensure that the same rules applied to peers as MPs. Insiders said that any such law would be retrospective, ensuring that Lord Black is stripped of his seat.

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Andrew Mackinlay, Labour MP for Thurrock, had used parliamentary privilege to ask whether there was any connection between Lord Black’s peerage and any possible donation to Conservative funds. He said: “Can we be told how Conrad Black got a peerage and can we be reassured it was nothing so grubby as to do with money?”

Mr Straw said that he was not in a position to say why Lord Black had been nominated. But he added: “In our White Paper on House of Lords reform we committed ourselves to ensure that the same rules of disqualification for peers apply when they have been convicted of criminal offences, as they do to Members of this House. And the sooner the better.”

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