Lord Rennard issues apology

EMBATTLED Nick Clegg faces a fresh crisis after former Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard finally apologised to four women who accused him of sexual harassment.

The Deputy Prime Minister has been urged to eject the peer from the party in the wake of his concession that he “may well have encroached upon ‘personal space”’ — albeit inadvertently.

But friends of Lord Rennard indicated that, far from quitting, he will now seek to have the Lib Dem whip restored after complying with the recommendations of an inquiry.

Lord Rennard’s expression of regret followed more than a year in which he responded to a series of complaints about his past behaviour by denying any wrongdoing.

After police dropped an investigation into the allegations, a probe carried out for the Lib Dems by Alistair Webster QC concluded there was broadly credible evidence he had violated personal space.

But Mr Webster found no breach of party rules could be proved beyond reasonable doubt, and merely suggested Lord Rennard should say sorry.

A statement supplied to the party by the peer’s lawyers this week made clear he was apologising after being given access to a redacted version of Mr Webster’s findings.

“Lord Rennard wishes to achieve closure of the contentious issues that have been in the public domain for the last 14 months by expressing his apologies to Susan Gaszczak, Alison Goldsworthy, Bridget Harris and Alison Smith,” he said.

“He hereby expresses his regret for any harm or embarrassment caused to them or anything which made them feel uncomfortable.

“Lord Rennard wishes to make it absolutely clear that it was never his intention to cause distress or concern to them by anything that he ever said or did.”

Ms Goldsworthy told Channel 4 News: “If he had accepted and offered this apology up 15 months ago then things may be very different.”