Rotherham peer Lord Ahmed accused of ‘inappropriate sexual approaches’

Tuesday 19th February 2019 19:39 EST
 

Rotherham peer Lord Nazir Ahmed has been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour and exploiting his position to try and have sex with women.

The allegations emerged as part of a BBC Newsnight investigation aired last night (Thursday), which also raises questions about the adequacy of the code of conduct in the House of Lords.

Lord Ahmed, who is one of Britain's first Muslim peers, denies the allegations against him and said one of the women was trying to “damage my reputation”.

Newsnight said it had spoken to several women who "have been extremely upset by inappropriate sexual approaches" by Lord Ahmed and that "requests for political help were met with requests for sex".

One complainant Tahira Zaman (43) said Lord Ahmed, who is a married man with three children, repeatedly asked her out to dinner. She told Newsnight that at first she had declined, but agreed after Lord Ahmed said he had written to the police asking them to help her case. She claims Lord Ahmed sat on top of her and she had felt pressured to have sex with him. He continued to pursue her, she said, and they had a two-month affair which only ended because he had made it clear he wasn't going to leave his wife.

Another woman told Newsnight that when she asked Lord Ahmed for help he suggested she should spend the night at his London home. In a statement, Lord Ahmed said: “I completely deny the allegation that I have exploited my position to pursue an inappropriate relationship with any member of the public (vulnerable or otherwise) or that I have acted inappropriately in the presence of women either in my personal or professional capacity.

“The House of Lords' Commissioner for Standards, Ms Lucy Scott-Moncrieff CBE, assessed the complaint and decided that it did not engage parliamentary inappropriate behaviour about me. She decided to take no further action.

“The complainant asked the Commissioner to review her decision and acting upon this request, the Commissioner re-examined her reasoning and reached the same conclusion. The allegations have been rejected by others as being without merit and given these outcomes it is regrettable that the BBC has chosen to proceed with this broadcast.

“I take my duties as a Parliamentarian extremely seriously and would not act so as to undermine my personal or professional reputation. I am disappointed in the way in which the complainant has pursued this matter having provided inconsistent accounts of her alleged complaint. 

“It is with regret that the timing of this broadcast is when my wife is in a critical condition in intensive care. I therefore ask that my and my family’s privacy is respected at this time.”

Lord Ahmed sat as a Labour councillor in Rotherham between 1990 and 2000 and was chairman of the party's South Yorkshire branch between 1993-2000. He resigned from the Labour party in 2013 days before he was due to face a hearing over alleged anti-Semitic comments. In 2009, he was jailed for dangerous driving after admitting sending text messages moments before his car hit a stranded driver on the hard shoulder.


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