Aristocrat who lives in a castle wins lifetime seat in Parliament after getting SEVEN votes in ridiculous election

Charles Peregrine Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, will be able to vote on your laws and claim £300 a day after his landslide victory in a hereditary peer by-election

Mikey Smith  and Dan Bloom

The 42-year-old Old Etonian lives with his TV actress wife AJ at Powderham Castle (Image: REX/Shutterstock)

An aristocrat who lives in a castle has gained a lifetime seat in the British Parliament after winning SEVEN votes in a bizarre election.
Charles Peregrine Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, will be able to vote on your laws and claim £300 a day until he dies or retires after his landslide victory in a hereditary peer by-election.
The 42-year-old Old Etonian lives with his TV actress wife AJ at Powderham Castle in Devon, which has 3,000 acres, a deer park and a forge.
He was one of 19 candidates, all of whom were only allowed to stand for the House of Lords because they are descended from aristocracy.
Only 31 peers were allowed to vote in this festival of democracy, which will have cost taxpayers around £1,140 to run, and all of them were hereditary crossbench peers already in the Lords.
The Earl won a whopping seven votes in the first round, crushing his rivals Lord Aldington and Lord Ravensdale, who each won four votes.
By the time of the final round his total had notched up to 12 votes.

Charles Peregrine Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, will be able to vote on your laws and claim £300 a day until he dies (Image: REX/Shutterstock)

Powderham Castle in Devon (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Darren Hughes, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said before the result: "These so-called by-elections are an undemocratic farce – and make mockery of our democracy.
"The fact we will find out the results of one of these sham elections during 'National Democracy Week' is an irony that can't be ignored."
Labour leader in the Lords Angela Smith told the Mirror: "Hereditary by-elections have had their day and it is clear that the House of Lords wants to see the back of them.
"The only thing standing in the way of change is the government.”
The system is a bizarre hangover from Tony Blair ’s attempts to modernise the House of Lords.

The system is a bizarre hangover from Tony Blair’s attempts to modernise the Lords (Image: AFP)

When the ex-Labour PM mostly abolished inherited peerages in 1999, he agreed to let 92 of them stay in the House of Lords as a compromise. Almost two decades on, the situation has still not been resolved.
That means when one of the hereditary peers dies or retires, the peers that got booted out in 1999 get first refusal on his or (very rarely her) seat.
This time the vacancy was for a crossbench - non-politically-aligned - peer.
Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, was educated at Eton and Cambridge, before studying law.
He’s married to American actress AJ Langer, who is best known for appearing on 90s TV shows Baywatch and My So-Called Life.

The castle has its own deer (Image: Universal Images Group Editorial)

The couple have two children, who were born in LA.
The family now live in his ancestral home of Powderham Castle, parts of which date back to the late 12th century and are open to the public.
Charles can trace his family back to the feudal barons of the 11th century.
The Courtenay line descend from French noblemen, and came to England after the Norman conquest.
Charles' father, Hugh Courtenay, hit the headlines in 2008, when he refused a request from two men who wanted to get married in his castle.
He said it was “objectionable to his Christian religion.”

Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, was educated at Eton and Cambridge (Image: REX/Shutterstock)

Devon County council revoked his licence for hosting civil ceremonies, a move which cost the family up to £200,000 a year in revenue.
The licence was reinstated in 2015.
In his candidacy statement, the Earl of Devon euphemistically referred to his castle as an "800-year-old family SME (small or medium-sized enterprise), incorporating heritage tourism, sustainable land management, and community wellbeing."
The barrister said he is "London-based weekly" and "I head the UK IP-litigation practice of a leading US law firm."
"I would be honoured to champion Devon in this House," he added.

Mirror