A scheme to give branded House of Lords umbrellas to peers had to be abandoned because they kept cropping up for sale online.
Lord Brabazon of Tara, head of the House of Lords administration, made the revelation as he rejected a call to issue waders to help members get from their offices to the Lords chamber.
Labour peer Lord Touhig said at question time that during last week's downpours some footpaths around the Palace of Westminster were under water.
He asked Lord Brabazon: "Could you do something about the drainage in these areas and in the meantime, if we have any more warnings of severe rain, could those of us who do not have offices in the Palace be issued with waders?"
Lord Brabazon, chairman of committees in the Lords, joked that peers would have to put up with the conditions "until this drought is over".
He said: "There was a project a few years back of issuing umbrellas. That was not a success as most of those umbrellas disappeared rather quickly, largely on account of the fact that they had the House of Lords logo on them and I believe could be found on eBay relatively expensively."
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