Police outside Lord Sewel's flat in Pimlico (Picture: Nigel Howard)
After 48 hours of defiantly refusing to quit, the former minister finally stood down after police raided his Pimlico flat and senior colleagues lined up to urge him to go. It is understood he will keep his title.
Facing more damaging allegations over claims that he boasted to two prostitutes of having sex with a BBC TV presenter, Lord Sewel, pictured left, resigned this morning.
In a statement released shortly before 7.30am, he said: “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.
Lord Sewel: Quit the House and apologised today
“I believe the answer to both these questions means that I can best serve the House by leaving it.”
Describing the Lords as an “effective, vital but undervalued part of our political system”, he added: “I hope my decision will limit and help repair the damage I have done to an institution I hold dear. Finally, I want to apologise for the pain and embarrassment I have caused.”
Lord Sewel’s third wife, Jennifer, 54, a director at Aberdeen University refused to talk about the incident — but a friend at the family home in Scotland said the peer was not in “and is not expected”.
His departure was welcomed by peers as calls grew for sweeping reform to the Lords following a string of expenses and lobbying scandals.
Lords Leader Baroness Stowell said: “For the House of Lords to earn the confidence of the public, all of us must respect the privileges that come with a peerage and recognise that — because we are unelected — it is especially important to meet the standards the public have a right to expect, and to act swiftly when we fail.”
Former Lords Leader Lord Hill said Lord Sewel’s resignation was “better late than never”.
The Cabinet Office said there was no “mechanism” by which Lord Sewel could be stripped of his title.
Parliamentary sources said aristocrats who fought with the Germans during the First World War had had their peerages removed but this is believed to be under the Title Deprivation Act of 1917, which referred specifically to treason in war time. Scotland Yard launched a criminal investigation yesterday following the drug allegations against Lord Sewel in The Sun.
Officers raided the peer’s flat at Dolphin Square, Pimlico, a short walk from Parliament, after the newspaper put out a video apparently showing him snorting cocaine from the breasts of a prostitute using a £5 note. In another clip he was wearing an orange bra and a leather jacket.
The 69-year-old, a former minister in Tony Blair’s government, is also reported to have bragged that he had an affair with a BBC presenter, which she denies, and that he was a serial adulterer. He also allegedly described some Asian women as “whores”.
In the raid yesterday up to 10 officers, some in plain clothes, were seen entering the eighth-floor flat shortly before 6pm after battering down the door.
Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, speaking on BBC Radio this morning, said: “We are carrying out an investigation and it would be unfair on everyone to go into any detail.”
The Lords anti-sleaze commissioner was carrying out an initial assessment before deciding whether to launch a full investigation into three-times married Lord Sewel — which may now not happen as he has already stood down.
Shortly after the scandal broke, Lord Sewel quit his £84,500-a year-role as chairman of committees, including the one that oversees conduct, and as Lords deputy speaker.
But he was still clinging on to his place in the Lords yesterday, requesting a leave of absence while investigations were carried out.
Dolphin Square is also at the centre of a police investigation into claims of child sex abuse by Establishment figures, which is completely separate from the allegations against Lord Sewel.
Local residents in the plush housing complex, where average rents are more than £2,000 per month, expressed disgust at the allegations.
Businessman Roman Bhatia, 39, added: “It’s extremely disturbing to have it happen here. Even if it’s got nothing to do with you and your neighbours, it kind of reflects badly on everyone living here.
“Everyone here seems respectable — maybe it’s just the MPs and Lords bringing the area down.”
Vaneed Dhingra, 27, an accountant from India, said: “It makes me feel bad that such things are happening here. You wouldn’t expect it.”
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