Lord Bhatia, one of Tony Blair’s ‘people’s peers’ who was suspended from the Lords over expenses – obituary
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Lord Bhatia, who has died aged 91, was an Ismaili Muslim businessman born in East Africa who was ennobled in recognition of his charitable work since arriving in Britain in 1972.
Appointed one of Tony Blair’s “people’s peers” in 2001, Amir Bhatia derived much of his influence from chairing the UK arm of Industrial Promotion Services, the Geneva-based conglomerate managing the Aga Khan’s global business empire.
IPS’s British subsidiary was set up in 1988 to help Ismaili family businesses expand, taking a minority stake in firms from convenience stores to wine bars and property. But several of the investments turned sour in the recession of the early 1990s, and Bhatia came under fire within the Ismaili community over IPS’s performance.
“Using hindsight, we chose the worst possible time to invest in the UK,” he told The Sunday Times in 1994. “The recession has hit thousands of private businesses, and our investment is no different.”
On the charity front, Bhatia chaired Oxfam’s trading board, was a member of the National Lottery Charity Board, and co-founded the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO) and the Ethnic Minority Foundation (EMF).
His stewardship of the EMF, raising £1 million a year for deserving causes in Britain and India, culminated in a spectacular falling-out in 2012. The charity accused him of misappropriating more than £600,000; Bhatia claimed to be £250,000 out of pocket, and sued for wrongful dismissal.
He had chaired the EMF in an unpaid capacity until 2009 and, the charity’s trustees said, later offered to take over when its chief executive left to monitor projects in India. They claimed this arrangement was never formalised, and they were unaware of an apparent £100,000 annual payment to a consultancy firm owned by Bhatia.
Anil Bhanot, who became EMF’s treasurer in 2012 and subsequently chairman, said Bhatia was “using the charity to run his own lifestyle, and that was wrong”. The trustees, who alleged that Bhatia’s “mismanagement” brought the charity within weeks of collapse, confronted him in December 2012 over their suspicions, and he resigned.
The draft findings of a forensic accountant brought in to investigate were passed to the BBC’s Newsnight. The allegations, all relating to the total claim of £625,961, included: that Bhatia gave himself a £100,000-a-year contract of employment without ratification from the EMF’s board, and that the charity was paying his chauffeur more than £40,000 a year. In January 2012, Bhatia had given the chauffeur a £12,000 loan and £12,000 pay rise.
The EMF further alleged that Bhatia owed it £94,094 for agreed contributions to rent it was paying for premises owned by him; that he put a relation and a long-term acquaintance on its payroll – to the tune of £75,264 – when they were working mainly for him; that they charged the charity £22,746 for private medical insurance for three members of his family; and that he made inappropriate expenses claims, among them nearly £800 for duty-frees and almost £5,000 for House of Lords refreshments.
Bhatia disputed the allegations and the matter was settled out of court. Under new management, the EMF continued as a vigorous and effective charity and campaigning organisation.
Bhatia’s difficulties with the EMF came in the wake of an eight-month suspension from the Lords over his expenses. Together with the Labour peers Lord Paul and Baroness Uddin, he was suspended in October 2010 for having claimed thousands of pounds for flats that were in fact occupied by family members.
Bhatia’s suspension resulted from his having claimed £27,446, which he had repaid. He had listed as his main home a flat in Reigate occupied by his brother, despite being listed with his wife on the electoral roll at their long-standing address at Hampton, which was also the registered office of his companies.
Amirali Alibhai “Amir” Bhatia was born on March 18 1932, the son of Alibhai Bhatia and Fatma Alibhai Bhatia. Educated in Tanzania and India, he ran a factory in Tanzania from 1960.
Coming to Britain as Idi Amin expelled the Asian community from neighbouring Uganda, he became a director of Casley Finance, and from 1980 to 2001 chaired its sister company Forbes Campbell International. In 1985 he became a trustee of Oxfam, the first of several high-profile charity appointments. He served for 14 years, chairing Oxfam’s trading board between 1986 and 1992.
Bhatia’s joined the board of the Community Development Foundation in 1988 and became treasurer of International Alert in 1994. He joined the National Lottery Charities Board at its inception in 1995, serving until 2000, and in 1999 co-founded CEMVO and the EMF.
He became chairman of Project Fullemploy and the British Edutrust Foundation, and served on the boards of Water Aid, St Christopher’s Hospice and Tower Hamlets College.
Bhatia was appointed OBE in 1997. In 2001 the UK Charity Awards named him their Personality of the Year, and in 2003 he was awarded the Beacon Fellowship Prize for his leadership role in countering social deprivation in Britain and worldwide.
A string of public appointments followed: membership of the East London Training and Enterprise Council, the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee for the Queen’s Award (1999), and from 2001 to 2003 the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
In 1998, Bhatia was appointed to chair the DTI’s Simpler Trade Procedures Board. Three years later, Stephen Byers reconstituted the board as a limited company, with Bhatia still its chairman; he served until 2004.
Amir Bhatia was created a life peer in 2001 and sat as a crossbencher. In 2002-03 he was a member of the Lords’ Committee on Religious Offences.
He married Nurbanu Amersi in 1954 and they had three daughters.
Lord Bhatia, born March 18 1932, died January 12 2024
