Peer’s sex and cocaine scandal to be referred to police

A British peer is facing a police investigation after quitting as deputy speaker of the House of Lords over a video allegedly showing him taking cocaine with sex workers.

Lord Sewel's behaviour was described by Lords speaker Baroness D'Souza as "shocking and unacceptable". She said she was referring the matter to Scotland Yard.

“The House of Lords will continue to uphold standards in public life and will not tolerate departure from these standards,” she said.

Sewel, a crossbench peer, resigned after the Sun on Sunday published a video showing him using a £5 note to snort a white powder off a tabletop. He is also heard calling women "whores".

The paper said the footage was filmed in Sewel’s flat in Dolphin Square, a short walk from the House of Lords.

In the video, Sewel, who has been a peer since 1996, is asked whether he receives expenses, and explains that he now gets a flat-rate allowance of £200 a day, though he alludes to the system being less rewarding than it once was.

“It’s all changed and disappeared. People were making false claims,” he is heard saying. “Members of her lordship’s house are right thieves, rogues and bastards at times. Wonderful people that they are.”

The allowance for peers is £300 a day, and does not apply to Sewel, who was paid a salary of £84,525 as chairman of committees, a role he has resigned.

His responsibility was to oversee the work of the various Lords committees and ensures they are not working in conflict with one another, and using their time and resources to best effect. He has also sat on the committee responsible for members privileges and conduct.

Sewel is a former senior vice-principal of the University of Aberdeen and a former parliamentary undersecretary of state at Scottish Office, serving as the minister for agriculture, environment and fisheries between 1997-1999.

Sewel is not required to resign from the Lords until an investigation by peers.

It is also open to the upper house to sanction a peer by denying them access to the Lords facilities or suspend the member from parliament for a specific period. – (Guardian service)