Labour peer, 82, suspended for harassing two women

A LABOUR peer who engaged in ‘stalkerish’ behaviour with one woman and offered to write a ‘sexually suggestive’ rhyme to another has been suspended by the party.

Lord Lea of Crondall was found to have breached rules regarding his behaviour towards the two women following an investigation by a standards watchdog.

The 82-year-old peer, pictured, has been referred for ‘behaviour change coaching’. Labour has removed the whip until he has completed the training.

One woman said Lord Lea asked to meet her in 2018 to ‘finish a bottle of champagne’ and revealed he kept a picture of her on his piano from a work trip they had both attended nine years earlier when she was in her 20s. The woman said she was startled, and became visibly upset as she relayed the story to Commons authorities. She described the peer as ‘slightly stalkerish’ and said she felt his comments indicated that he had feelings for her. She had previously complained about his behaviour during the work trip but it did not fall within the scope of the parliamentary code at the time. She resubmitted her complaint about his 2018 behaviour after the code was updated last April.

Another woman said Lord Lea pestered her after saying he would write a sexually suggestive poem that rhymed with her name. His behaviour left her ‘feeling uncomfortable and singled out’.

The House of Lords Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, said Lord Lea’s behaviour in the two separate cases met the criteria for harassment.

Lord Lea, a former trade union leader, initially apologised for what he understood to be ‘an unwelcome intrusion’ towards the first woman but later suggested she was exaggerating or ‘egging the pudding in some way’, she said.