Lords refuse to kick out ‘groping’ peer
Colleagues vote to block his suspension as accuser says: My worst fears have come true
A FEMALE campaigner who claims a peer offered to make her a baroness if she had sex with him last night said she felt ‘abused all over again’ as he escaped punishment.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill had faced the longest suspension in modern parliamentary history after an inquiry found he had groped author Jasvinder Sanghera and offered her ‘corrupt inducements’ to sleep with him.
But yesterday he was told he could remain in the Lords as fellow peers blocked his suspension, which was due to run until 2022.
The House of Lords voted by 101 to 78 to reject the sanction recommended by the Lords’ Committee for Privileges and Conduct, and ordered it to probe the case again.
Miss Sanghera last night said: ‘My worst fears have been realised.’ Lord Lester, 82, allegedly became ‘obsessively attracted’ to Miss Sanghera, 53, as they worked together on legislation to protect victims of forced marriage in 2007 and pestered her for sex.
The prominent peer and leading human rights barrister – an architect of Britain’s race and sex equality laws – persuaded her to stay with him and his wife at their £3million home after she missed her train following a late meeting.
But she claimed that in the car journey there he repeatedly grabbed her thigh instead of the gearstick, leaving her so concerned for her safety that she barricaded herself inside their guest bedroom using a chair.
During a subsequent visit to the Lords, he reportedly her: ‘If you sleep with me, I will make you a baroness within a year.’ Lord McNally, a Liberal Democrat, said: ‘We must not be intimidated by the present atmosphere about sexual harassment to make the wrong decisions in this place just because of that current climate.’
Former lord justice of appeal and independent crossbencher Baroness Butler-Sloss said the committee should look at the case again.
‘This case should be properly tried by whatever process is to be done but with the credibility of the witnesses properly tested,’ she said. ‘For us not to do that would be for us to send a message that
‘ No one thought of me today ’
we don’t really treat the rule of law sufficiently seriously.’
Miss Sanghera last night told the Daily Mail: ‘I can only describe it as feeling abused all over again. Having watched it unfold, that was my fear right from the beginning when I decided to complain that there would be a sheer imbalance of power.
‘I just feel abused again, bullied and traduced. No one thought of me today in that chamber.’
She added: ‘I feel absolutely disheartened for victims of sexually harassment and bullying because this message has been sent out to them that if you are thinking of complaining, this is what happens. I personally would not subject any victim to what I have been through. I cannot sit here and say to you that a victim of sexual abuse and bullying should feel confident about complaining to the House of Lords. I don’t. An abuser goes back to work tomorrow and I am left feeling like this.’
Her lawyer, David Hooper, added: ‘You had a bunch of old men, standing up saying “I have known him for years, I never thought this would happen”.
‘It is obviously a secondary abuse and no woman should feel confident in this process.’
In a statement, Lord Lester said: ‘I would like to thank David Pannick and those members of the Lords who supported him today recognising the importance of process and now look forward to restoring my reputation.’
And yesterday Lord McFall, senior deputy speaker in the House of Lords, also said in a statement: ‘I am deeply disappointed by today’s decision by the House to send the report into the conduct of Lord Lester back to the Privileges and Conduct Committee for further consideration.
‘The committee will meet next week to consider options in response to today’s vote.’
Meanwhile Baroness Nicholson told Radio 4’s Today programme that Lord Lester’s suspension was ‘not justice’, adding: ‘The person complained against has a right to get then cross-examined and that has not been allowed.’