Peter Derek Truscott, Baron Truscott (born 20 March 1959) is a British petroleum and mining consultant, independent member of the House of Lords and writer. He was a Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994 to 1999 and was elevated to the peerage in 2004. He has written on Russia, defence and energy, and works with a variety of companies in the field of non-renewable resource extraction.
Previously somewhat low-profile in British politics, Truscott made headlines in 2009 as one of four Labour peers named by the Sunday Times as being willing to accept money to help companies amend bills that would have an adverse effect on them. He consequently became one of the first peers suspended from the House of Lords since the 17th century.
Personal life
Truscott was born in Newton Abbot, Devon and educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He received a BA in modern history in 1981, followed by a DPhil in 1985. In 1991, he met and rapidly married Svetlana Chernikov, daughter of a Red Army colonel. By 2008, the couple owned a £1 million apartment in Mayfair, a flat in Bath and property in Russia.
In February 2009, it was revealed that Truscott was, in line with House of Lords rules, classifying his small Bath flat as his main residence, thus entitling him to claim a £28,000 per year public subsidy of his £700,000 Mayfair flat.
Political career
Political organiser and MEP
After completion of his doctorate, Truscott was a political organiser for the Labour Party from 1986 to 1989, and a councillor in Colchester from 1988 to 1992. He contested Torbay for the Labour Party in 1992, coming third with 5,503 votes (9.59%). He then went on to represent Hertfordshire in the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Security Sub-Committee, and the delegation for relations with the Russian Federation throughout his time in the European Parliament, and was also the UK Government's spokesperson on foreign affairs and defence in the Parliament from 1997 to 1999.
Peerage
Having failed to win re-election to the European Parliament, Truscott was created a life peer on 10 June 2004 as Baron Truscott, of St. James's in the City of Westminster. From 2006 to 2007 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the DTI government spokesperson in the House of Lords. Truscott is currently Parliamentary British Council Ambassador to the Russian Federation and republics of the former Soviet Union. He is a member of the House of Lords European Union Select Committee, Sub Committee C (Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy). He was formerly a visiting research fellow with the Institute for Public Policy Research and an associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.
In 2007 Truscott made a speech to a coal industry conference in his capacity as a DTI minister restating the government's strong support for the continued use of coal in electricity generation, a controversial policy opposed by scientists and campaigners such as climatologist James E. Hansen. While in the House of Lords, Truscott was judged by the Public Whip to have voted "very strongly against" efforts to strengthen the Climate Change Act 2008, opposing all of the following: the target of an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050, the aim to prevent warming of more than 2 °C (the figure most commonly cited in discussions about avoiding runaway climate change), making the UK's annual statement on emissions the responsibility of the Prime Minister, and reporting on the international impact of the UK's emissions. He has also voted "strongly for" the Identity Cards Act 2006.
In 2016 he came out in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.
In 2022 he attracted considerable negative press due to his support for Vladimir Putin, especially after asking a question in the House of Lords that seemingly expressed puzzlement as to why a thermonuclear war with Russia would be considered an 'unwelcome outcome'.