Justice campaigner Doreen Lawrence headed a list of 30 new members of the House of Lords, which also included JCB boss and Conservative donor Sir Anthony Bamford, senior police officer Brian Paddick and Ministry of Sound nightclub supremo James Palumbo.
The list of working peers includes 14 Conservatives, 10 Liberal Democrats and five Labour nominees, as well as one Green – London Assembly member and former deputy mayor Jenny Jones.
The appointments, nominated by party leaders and cleared by the independent House of Lords Appointments Commission, is certain to provoke comment because of the inclusion of political party donors including Sir Anthony, who has given around £100,000 personally to the Tories in the last few years, with more sums donated by his company.
The appointments mean that the Conservatives have now regained their positionas the largest party in the House of Lords by a single seat, with 222 peers toLabour’s 221 and the Liberal Democrats’ 99.
The total number of members of the Upper House – which has already been criticised for being too large – swells to 785, compared to 650 MPs in the House of Commons.
New Conservative peers include financier Howard Leigh, who has given £37,682 to the party since 2011, as well as journalist Daniel Finkelstein, Paralympic swimmer Chris Holmes and former Scottish leader Annabel Goldie and ex-leader in the Welsh Assembly Nicholas Bourne.
The Labour list includes businessman Sir William Haughey, chief executive of City Refrigeration Holdings, who has given the party £1.3m since 2003, former party fund-raiser Jon Mendelsohn and the chairman of Global Radio Group Sir Charles Allen.
Liberal Democrats elevated to the peerage include Mr Paddick, who served as deputy assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, the party’s former communications director Olly Grender, Nick Clegg’s ex-deputy chief of staff Alison Suttie and Ministry of Sound co-founder Mr Palumbo, whose only donation was auction prizes worth £7,000 to the Conservatives.
Mrs Lawrence’s seat in the Upper House as a Labour baroness comes after a 20-year fight for justice for her son Stephen, who was stabbed to death at the age of 18 in a racist attack in south London.
Mrs Lawrence’s tireless campaign for justice led to the Macpherson Inquiry, which found evidence of “institutional racism” in the Metropolitan Police. Two of his killers were finally convicted of murder in 2012.
She has already received an OBE and founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to support young people from ethnic minority backgrounds to pursue their ambitions, is a member of the executive committee of human rights group Liberty and has been chosen to sit on Home Office and police panels.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “Over the past 20 years, Doreen Lawrence has had a profound impact on Britain and I am delighted that she will become a Labour member of the House of Lords.
“Since the horrific racist murder of her son, Doreen has shown incredible strength and courage as she sought, and continues to seek, justice for Stephen.
“She has changed attitudes to policing and racism in this country and I have no doubt that her strength and determination will be a huge asset to the House of Lords in the coming years.”