Career
Following the sale of Centurion Press [3] , Evans founded Senate Publishing Ltd [4] with his business partner Caroline Minshell. Evans was a Trustee of the Royal Air Force Museum [5] and is a Director of the Royal Air Force Museum Trading Company. [6] He is chairman of the Institute of Collaborative Working. [7] Evans was Senior Advisor to Ron Wahid, Chairman of Arcanum Global, [8] a global strategic intelligence company and a subsidiary of Magellan Investment Holdings.
Evans was created a life peer on 28 July 1998 taking the title Baron Evans of Watford, of Chipperfield in the County of Hertfordshire . [9]
Work for Azerbaijan
Evans has given gushing support of Azerbaijan. He praised the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR's contracts with BP, celebrated Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in a 2020 war, and supported Azerbaijan's bid to host COP29. [10] These remarks were controversial due to Azerbaijan's corrupt, environmentally destructive and authoritarian regime. [10]
SOCAR contracted with Evans's publishing company Senate Publishing to produce three glossy books about SOCAR over the period 2015–2019. [10] A fourth book was planned in 2022, but it was cancelled amid reporting into Evans. [10] Evans never formally disclosed to the British parliament that his company was being paid by SOCAR. [10] He defended this non-disclosure, saying "It is Senate Publishing that has contractual business relations with SOCAR — not me. There was nothing to disclose.” He has refused to disclose how much the company was paid by SOCAR. [10]
The authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan paid for Evans to visit the country in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2020 to serve as an election monitor. Evans praised the conduct of the elections, even though reputable election monitors deemed the elections not free and fair. [10] Evans's son was also paid to monitor an Azerbaijani election in 2018, when the son was 18 years old, which earned him a glowing letter of recommendation from the Azerbaijan ambassador to the United Kingdom – Evans's son proudly this letter on his LinkedIn page until 2024. [10] Evans's son also worked as a paid intern for SOCAR in Geneva in 2023. [10]
Evans has made two spoken contributions in Parliament since 2010. One of those contributions was to urge the British government to ask Armenia to inform Azerbaijan about the location of landmines in conflict areas between the two countries. [10]
Work for Kazakhstan
He is a director of Jusan Technologies Limited, a Kazakh-linked investment holding company. [11] The company sued TBIJ, The Telegraph and openDemocracy for defamation over articles published in early 2022. The claim against the Telegraph was settled in January 2024.
Cash-for-access allegations
In February 2025, The Guardian published a report alleging that Lord Evans had offered access to ministers - including Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner - in return for a payment of £25,000, as part of a sponsorship of a commercial event in Parliament run by Evans' son. [12] [13] On 4 March 2025, the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards started an investigation of possible breaches of the House of Lords rules. [14]
In November 2025, Evans was suspended from the House of Lords for five months by the House of Lords Conduct Committee for four separate breaches of the House of Lords Code of Conduct which "could erode public trust in parliamentarians". Undercover reporters, posing as property developers, had found that he would assist in lobbying fellow parliamentarians. Evans initially claimed he had not broken the rules. Evans had the Labour whip removed. [15] [16]
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