Key events following publication of video apparently showing peer taking cocaine with sex workers The Sun on Sunday publishes a video apparently showing Lord Sewel,deputy speaker of the House of Lords, taking cocaine with sex workers. He is shown using a £5 note to snort a white powder off a tabletop and was heard to call women “whores”. The paper said the footage was filmed in Sewel’s flat in Dolphin Square.[The] revelations approximately the behaviour of Lord Sewel are both shocking and unacceptable. Lord Sewel has resigned as chairman of committees. The House of Lords will continue to uphold standards in public life and will not tolerate departure from these standards. I wish to take leave of absence from the house as soon as it can be arranged. I also wish to gain clear that in doing so I have no intention of returning to the house in any way until the current investigations have been completed, and when in the light of their outcome I will review my long term position. I believe this is compatible with due process.
I have nowadays written to the clerk of the parliaments terminating my membership of the House of Lords. The question of whether my behaviour breached the code of conduct is important,but essentially technical. The bigger questions are whether my behaviour is compatible with membership of the House of Lords and whether my continued membership would damage and undermine public confidence in the House of Lords. I believe the acknowledge to both these questions means that I can best serve the house by leaving it.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com