Lord kicked out of Harrods over paint-spattered jacket and jeans

HIS family’s ancestral seat is the stupendous Badminton House, set in 52,000 Gloucestershire acres, his eldest brother is the Duke of Beaufort and his first cousins include the Marquess of Bath.

So Lord John Somerset — known to chums as Johnson — might reasonably expect to be accorded a cordial, even deferential, reception at Harrods, ‘the world’s leading luxury department store’, as it proudly styles itself.

But not a bit of it: in extraordinary scenes, the 57-year- old was almost ‘ frogmarched’ out by security guards — an indignity for anyone, but perhaps especially traumatic for a member of the aristocracy, even in today’s studiously egalitarian society.

The incident came to the attention of writer and shipping heir Taki Theodoracopulos, who is godfather to Lord John’s daughter, Romy.

Lord John was married to Lady Cosima VaneTempest-Stewart, a confidante of Princess Diana.

Taki explains that ‘Johnson’, a music producer who has collaborated with Bryan

Ferry among others, was wearing jeans and a paintspattered jacket.

Despite his decidedly down- at- heel appearance, the slightly dishevelled aristocrat ( pictured left looking much smarter) made it to the fifth floor — the home of Harrods’ technology department. ‘He was waiting to pay for a £500 speaker,’ Taki adds, ‘when he was approached by two store heavies’. The nobleman then found himself under escort and descending five storeys at some speed, and then being ejected from the building but not before inquiring why – and being told that it was because he was ‘inappropriately dressed’.

Perhaps it will be some consolation that he at least got some way inside the store before being hauled out.

That’s better than Australian pop singer and former Neighbours star Jason Donovan who was refused entry 30 years ago for wearing ripped jeans.

And Luke Goss — a member of Eighties band Bros — was refused entry by a Harrods doorman who reputedly failed to recognise him.