Lord Lester may face fresh accusations
LAWYERS acting for a women’s rights campaigner who accused Lord Lester of sexual harassment are understood to be examining fresh claims against the peer.
Separate sources have indicated that at least one more woman has contacted Jasvinder Sanghera to make claims about Lord Lester’s behaviour.
The nature of the claims are not known, nor if there is any evidence to corroborate them. Sources said the allegations needed to be treated with caution until they could be properly investigated and tested.
They were also concerned that the women could be deterred from coming forward for fear of a backlash.
Lord Lester, 82, one of Britain’s top human rights lawyers, had been facing a four-year ban from the House of Lords for the sexual harassment of Ms Sanghera over incidents dating back almost 12 years.
But more than 100 peers rallied to his defence last week, voting to reject the ban and accusing a Lords watchdog of carrying out a “manifestly unfair” inquiry which prevented his accuser from being cross-examined.
Yesterday Ms Sanghera said watching the peers’ revolt reminded her of the row in the US over the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. “I watched Kavanaugh and I felt for that woman [his accuser Christine Blasey Ford] … watching them try to discredit her. That’s exactly how I felt watching that House of Lords debate.”
Ms Sanghera, 53, who founded the charity Karma Nirvana to end forced marriage, had accused Lord Lester of groping her and of telling her: “Sleep with me and I will make you a baroness.”
Lord Lester has vehemently denied the allegations and yesterday likened his own situation to “a road crash”. He said that he had been “treated despicably” following investigations by the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, a Lords conduct committee and a Lords conduct sub-committee. Breaking his silence, he told the Mail
on Sunday: “The abuse of power was not by me but by them. What they have done is tyrannous.”
He said his appeal against the initial finding had been “a complete charade”. His wife Katya said: “The effect on him has been devastating … His health has deteriorated. He’s become an old man.”
Lord Lester said fresh evidence that he said undermined Ms Sanghera’s claims had been ignored by the Lords committee. He said her claim that he had taken a taxi ride with her to King’s Cross could not have happened because at the time he was heading to Gatwick Airport to fly to Strasbourg to conduct a case at the European Court of Human Rights.
The ban on Lord Lester was blocked following a vote in the House of Lords on Thursday. However the committee for privileges and conduct is expected – when it meets tomorrow – to try again and send it back to the Lords for a fresh vote to get the suspension ratified.
“The committee will double down and find a way to deal with this as soon as possible and the likely outcome will be the outcome everybody was expecting on the committee last week,” said the source.