British lord resigns after ‘taking drugs with prostitutes’
A criminal investigation is underway into what police say are “allegations of drug-related offences involving a member of the House of Lords”.
He was filmed and photographed in an alleged cocaine-and-sex session with prostitutes that has already cost him his position as deputy speaker.Sewel said Monday he has no intention of returning to the House of Lords until the investigations have been completed. “I consider the reply to each these questions signifies that I can greatest serve the House by leaving it”, he stated.
Further in the footage, Lord Sewel was shown denigrating other politicians, including saying that David Cameron is the most facile, superficial Prime Minister there ever has been.
The married 69-year-old had earlier quit his £84,500-a-year role as deputy speaker of the Lords and chairman of the Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee, but until this morning was resisting calls for him to leave Parliament altogether.
“If you are responsible for the setting of standards you yourself have to make sure that you deliver on that… he has done the right thing and I am relieved that has happened”.
Last night the Metropolitan Police raided Lord Sewel’s home with a sniffer dog and battering ram, two days after the shocking allegations first surfaced.
On Monday, he was captured sporting an orange bra and leather-based jacket whereas puffing on a cigarette.
He labels London mayor Boris Johnson “a joke” and a “public school upper-class twit”, and describes Scottish MP Alex Salmond as a “silly, pompous prat”, in footage from The Sunday. He was a Labour Party ally of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“As a subordinate, second chamber, the House of Lords is an efficient, very important however undervalued a part of our political system”.
“Now Get Rid Of The Lot Of Them”, the left-leaning Mirror newspaper said on its front page on Tuesday.
The announcement of his resignation was welcomed by fellow peers including the former leader of the upper house, Lord Hill, who is now a European commissioner.
Meanwhile, The Times said the House of Lords was “bloated” and its numbers should be reduced.
Less than two weeks previously, Sewel had written an article boasting how the House of Lords had taken steps to protect its image.
In his statement on Tuesday, he said: “I hope my decision will limit and help fix the damage I have done to an institution I hold dear….”
In a letter to the Clerk of the Parliaments, however, he wrote: “I want to apologise for the pain and embarrassment I have caused”.