Equalities campaigner Lord Lester dies
V LORD LESTER of Herne Hill — the lawyer who played a pivotal role in introducing race and sex discrimination laws in the UK — has died aged 84.
Born Anthony Lester in London in 1936 to a barrister father and a milliner mother, the exLiberal Democrat peer would later describe himself as a nonbelieving Jew who remained proud of his identity but suspicious of organised religion.
He spent more than 30 years campaigning for Britain to adopt the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law.
In 1964 Lord Lester was involved in setting up the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination and in 1971 he married his wife Catherine, who was a fellow barrister and subsequently an asylum judge. partly because my father said I would be absolutely hopeless as a barrister.”
In 2018, he was accused of offering a peerage to a woman in exchange for sexual favours. He denied all charges, and told the JC that he was “completely devastated” by the accusations.
The Lords’ privileges and conduct committee recommended he should be barred from House, although fellow peers voted to overturn the suspension. He resigned citing poor health.
His wife survives him as do his children, Maya, a QC and Gideon, artistic director of Bard College, New York.
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VThe diamond mask
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