ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Which retiring Conservative MPs should be given peerages?

ConservativeHome has been running a series highlighting people David Cam eron should consider appointing to the House of Lords, since any Conservative administration formed after the general election would be able to call upon the support of the lowest number of Conservative peers in history.

Mark Field MP wrote yesterday that the next Conservative Government should restrict the awarding of any future peerages to those taking up ministerial appointments - or at the very least to stop any retiring MP tainted by the expenses scandal from being ennobled - in advance of creating an elected second chamber.

Quite apart from the arguments against doing that (and there is no suggestion that this would be an early priority for David Cameron), the sheer arithmetic in the Upper House dictates that if there is a Conservative Government after the general election, there is a very strong case for the introduction of a considerable raft of working Conservative peers to rebalance the Lords in the short term at the very least, hence this Search for 100 Peers series.

So with that in mind, which of the retiring Conservative MPs should be awarded a peerage? I have already made the case for Michael Howard whilst Tim has made an equally compelling case for Ann Widdecombe - which was supported by 72% of Conservative members in a ConHome survey.

And on Tuesday at his monthly press conference David Cameron specifically ruled out giving a peerage to Sir John Butterfill on the back of his unwitting appearance on the previous night's Dispatches programme.

But what of the other Conservative retirees? Which of the following do you believe should be ennobled?