Former Wales secretary who mimed Welsh anthem joins Lords

Prominent Brexiteer and Tory former cabinet minister, Sir John Redwood, who once mimed the Welsh national anthem despite not knowing the words, has taken his place in the unelected House of Lords.

The Conservative veteran, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the party leadership, stepped down as an MP at the last election after nearly four decades in the Commons, saying he had “other things I wish to do”.

The Wokingham seat he had held since 1987 subsequently fell to the Liberal Democrats in the Tory drubbing at the polls.

Sir John was handed a life peerage by party leader Kemi Badenoch in the recent wave of political nominations to the Lords.

Lord Redwood wore the traditional scarlet robes for the short introduction ceremony in the upper chamber, where he swore the oath of allegiance to the King.

He was supported by fellow Conservative peers Baroness Meyer and Lord Moynihan of Chelsea.

Mr Redwood was one of the Eurosceptic cabinet ministers branded “bastards” by John Major as he fought to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, and continued to fly the anti-EU banner throughout his time in Parliament.

A banker and academic, he headed the 10 Downing Street policy unit under Margaret Thatcher from 1982-87, where he was a champion of privatisation.

On becoming an MP he held a number of ministerial positions prior to joining the cabinet in 1993 as Wales secretary, where his most memorable moment came when he attempted to mime the Welsh national anthem despite clearly not knowing the words.

His clash with Mr Major over Europe came to a head in 1995 when the prime minister called on his critics to “put up or shut up” and resigned to trigger a leadership contest.

Mr Redwood stood against him but received only 89 votes to Mr Major’s 219.

After failing in a second bid for the leadership in 1997, he returned to the Tory frontbenches from 1997-2005 under William Hague and Michael Howard.

In 2018, he branded as “a lie” accusations his knighthood was given him by the then prime minister Theresa May in an attempt to buy his support for her ill-fated Brexit deal.

Dismissing the claim at the time as “an obvious untruth”, he highlighted his continued opposition to the “very unwise” withdrawal agreement.

Also taking his seat in the Lords was technology consultant Uday Nagaraju, who is the founder and director of AI Policy Labs.