MP ‘got death threats over Maginnis row’
■ Gay MP Hannah Bardell has called for the veteran peer to be expelled from the House of Lords Standards watchdog recommends Maginnis be suspended for at least 18 months for bullying and harassment
A GAY MP who was found to be the target of homophobic abuse and bullying by Lord Maginnis said she has received death threats from others after complaining about his behaviour.
The standards watchdog for the House of Lords has recommended Lord Maginnis be suspended for at least 18 months for bullying and harassment of three MPS and a security guard.
But Hannah Bardell believes the former Ulster Unionist MP should be expelled from the House of Lords.
The SNP MP was the target of abusive comments by Lord Maginnis after she intervened as the peer berated a parliamentary security officer.
Ms Bardell complained that when she attempted to intervene in the clash, she was treated “rudely and aggressively” by Lord Maginnis, who later used “homophobic and derogatory language about her” in comments to the media.
She described the incidents investigated and the months after as “a grim affair” that included receiving “death threats earlier this year” — not from Lord Maginnis.
The Lords Conduct Committee suggested Lord Maginnis’s suspension could be extended if he does not undergo training and change his ways.
But the independent unionist peer said was “not pleased” by the findings and recommendations in the report and would not participate in behavioural training.
“I’m very cross,” he said. “The reality is that this was a very minor incident.”
LORD Maginnis’s opposition to same-sex marriage is hardly new, but the House of Lords committee report reveals his animosity towards individual gay people.
In emails, overheard exchanges and responses to questions, Lord Maginnis made clear his belief that he was targeted, even being the victim of a conspiracy, by individual MPS because they are gay.
One message to parliamentarians, with the subject heading “Discrimination by Homos”, read: “I have, in the past, been nominated by Stonewall as bigot of the year but lost out to a R.C. priest from Glasgow … a bit of a comedown for an Ulster Unionist.
“Joking apart, I’m not prepared to be victimised by ‘queers’ — not least by those like (Luke) Pollard and that ‘lady’ Hannah Bardell, the Scots Nat. who recently sought to embarrass me.”
MPS Mr Pollard and Ms Bardell, who are both gay, a security officer and a third member of the House of Commons all made complaints about the former MP’S remarks and behaviour, which was found by the House of Lords Conduct Committee to amount to “bullying and harassment”.
The investigation was launched after an exchange in January between Lord Maginnis and security officer Christian Bombolo at one of the entrances to Parliament.
It was witnessed by Ms Bardell, who later complained on the floor of the House about his “abusive” remarks.
Investigators also probed two incidents at meetings for the Armed Forces All-party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and their aftermath.
In an interview with the Huffington Post following the exchange with the security officer, Lord Maginnis made what Ms Bardell described as “homophobic and derogatory” remarks, including: “Queers like her do not particularly annoy me.”
The former Ulster Unionist MP, who lost his party whip in 2012 after describing gay relationships as a “rung on the ladder” towards bestiality and same-sex marriage as “unnatural and deviant behaviour”, said Mr Bardell’s “damn lies” suggested “serious mental illness and psychopathic disorder”.
Her complaint was because of his opposition to samesex marriage, Lord Maginnis claimed, adding that it was part of an organised campaign to persecute him.
He told investigators he would not “be hung out to dry by Stonewall (a gay rights advocacy group) or its acolytes”.
Mr Bombolo, who stopped Lord Maginnis at the entrance and asked for his security pass, said the peer became “aggressive and started literally by insulting me, using the word ‘crooked’ and shouting, abusing and intimidating me”.
The following day, Lord Maginnis spoke to a journalist from the Huffington Post about the incident and was reported to have referred to Mr Bombolo as “crooked”, a “little git” and a “jobsworth”.
Lord Maginnis described the security officer’s complaint as a “remarkably one-sided version of the incident” and questioned whether he was coached by Ms
Bardell, according to the report.
A third complaint stemmed from an Armed Forces APPG meeting in March, which was chaired by Mr Pollard. The Plymouth MP said Lord Maginnis “kept staring” at him and making derogatory remarks. Mr Pollard told the peer: “There’s no need to stare at me. I already have a boyfriend, but have a good evening.”
In an email sent to the group’s overall chair, James Gray MP, Lord Maginnis wrote he and Mr Pollard had a “normal disagreement before I even knew who or what he was — that he was ‘queer’.”
“He stepped up our minor disagreement by threatening to sort it out on the terrace and (said) ‘My boyfriend is out there’,” Lord Maginnis wrote in the email, which also included a reference to being victimised by “queers”.
Mr Gray found Lord Maginnis’s conduct at the meeting and the content of his email to be “completely and utterly unacceptable”.
The peer was barred from the next meeting but turned up anyway. He was told to leave and exchanged words with Mr Gray.
According to witnesses, Lord Maginnis “quickly responded aggressively, refusing to leave and implying that the chair would have to physically remove him”.
Conservative MP Toby Perkins, who was at the second meeting, was the fourth complainant.
He overheard Lord Maginnis saying “I am not going to be bullied by queers”.
Following the exchange, Mr Perkins asked Lord Maginnis what it was about. According to Mr Perkins, Lord Maginnis told him “he was being bullied because he was against gay marriage and that he wouldn’t be barred by a deviant”.
This was a reference to Mr Pollard, Mr Perkins said, adding that Lord Maginnis also “referred to a lesbian that he had previously had problems with over a pass”.
Questioned later, Lord Maginnis was told that Mr Perkins described the conversation as “unapologetically homophobic, aggressive and disrespectful”. He replied: “That sounds fairly accurate.”
Lord Maginnis “showed very little insight into the impact of his behaviour on the complainants and no remorse for the upset he had caused”, the report by the conduct committee concludes.
Instead he “portrayed himself as a victim of a conspiracy… and continued to refer to the complainants in a disobliging and sometimes offensive manner”.
It recommends he be barred for at least 18 months and that it should be extended “if he fails to engage constructively with behaviour change training”.
Peers will vote on Monday on the recommendation to suspend Lord Maginnis.