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Lord Rennard row: Peer suspended from Lib Dems and will not attend Lords after Nick Clegg's 'no apology, no whip' ultimatum Lord Rennard row: Peer suspended from Lib Dems and will not attend Lords after Nick Clegg's 'no apology, no whip' ultimatum
(35 minutes later)
The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard has been suspended from the party as a result of the ongoing row over sexual harassment allegations, and has confirmed that he will not attend the House of Lords today. Lord Rennard was suspended from the Liberal Democrat party this afternoon over his refusal to apologise to the women who claim that he sexually harassed them.
He now faces an investigation for allegedly bringing the party into disrepute, with a suspension pending disciplinary procedures. The move means that the party’s former chief
The party issued a statement saying the decision was made after the peer failed to apologise to a group of women who claim he sexually harassed them. executive, who denies all the allegations, is for the moment barred from taking
Lord Rennard denies the allegations and, after an inquiry found the women’s claims were credible but not provable beyond reasonable doubt, will not give an apology which might be seen as an admission of guilt. the Lib Dem whip in the House of Lords.
In a statement released just minutes before Lord Rennard had been expected to re-enter the Upper House, the Liberal Democrats said: “Nick Clegg made clear last week, and again this morning, that it would be inappropriate for Lord Rennard to resume the Liberal Democrat whip unless he apologises. Lord Rennard has refused to do so. In a statement moments later, Lord Rennard repeated
“The regional parties committee, which oversees disciplinary procedures under the English party membership rules, today decided to suspend Lord Rennard's membership of the party pending a disciplinary procedure. As such, he cannot return to the Liberal Democrat group in the House of Lords. his refusal to apologise and disclosed he had suffered depression and
“Lord Rennard will now be investigated for bringing the party into disrepute on the grounds of his failure to apologise, as recommended by Alistair Webster QC.” contemplated self-harm when he faced personal allegations in 2010.
The peer responded with a statement saying he will not attend the House of Lords today. He looks certain to mount a legal challenge to the
He said: “It is impossible to describe how enormously distressed I am by this situation and I am certainly too ill to attend the House of Lords today.” party’s latest move, thus triggering a vote of Lib Dem peers to decide whether
Earlier, the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg issued Lord Rennard with an ultimatum saying: “No apology, no whip.” or not to readmit him.
Speaking to ITV’s Daybreak, Mr Clegg said it would be “in defiance” of his authority if Lord Rennard was restored to the party without first apologising. The decision, which was taken by the Lib Dems’ Regional Parties
“What is on the line here is basic decency,” he said. “When you have caused offence and distress to other people, even if it doesn't end up in the hands of the police or the courts, basic decency suggests you should apologise. Committee, was announced
“That is what Lord Rennard has been asked to do after a formal investigation and a process - recommended by an independent QC. I really think he needs to do that. minutes before the Lords were due to hold their first session of the parliamentary
“I don't think it is appropriate that he should be sitting in the House of Lords if he hasn't provided that apology - no apology, no whip, if you like.” week.
The Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman told Sky News she felt the Lib Dem leadership had mishandled the ongoing disagreement. This move avoids a test of Nick Clegg's authority, after he has made clear his opposition
“Nick Clegg has made an absolute pig's ear of this whole thing,” she said. to Lord Rennard being allowed to sit on the Lib Dem benches.
“What he's done is said that the party rules are such that unless somebody has committed a criminal offence, there's nothing that can be done about it. Now they are moving on to this second issue about bringing the party into disrepute. So I think it's been a terrible muddle. A
“My sympathy is with those women who have complained and are left hanging.” party spokesman said Lord Rennard’s membership had been suspended “pending a
disciplinary procedure”.
The
spokesman said: “As such he cannot return to the Liberal Democrat group in the
House of Lords.”
He
said that Lord Rennard would be investigated for “bringing the party into disrepute
on the grounds of his failure to apologise” as was recommended by the inquiry
by the QC Alistair Webster into his conduct.
But
in a message to Lib Dem peers this afternoon, Lord Rennard refused to cede
ground. He said: “If ever I have hurt,
embarrassed or upset anyone, then it would never have been my intention and, of
course, I regret that they may have felt any hurt, embarrassment or upset. But
for the reasons given, I will not offer an apology to the four women
complainants. I do not believe that people should be forced to say what they
know they should not say, or do not mean.”
He explained that he was not well enough to attend today’s sitting of the Lords, saying: “It is impossible to describe how enormously
distressed I am by this situation and I am certainly too ill to attend the
House of Lords today.”
He also told of his struggle with depression when he faced
allegations about his conduct during 2010’s general election campaign. He said:
“The depth of depression that I felt and the consideration of self-harm is
difficult to describe so I will not do so.”
Many Lib Dem peers are sympathetic to the plight of
the party's former chief executive and believe he has been unfairly treated by
the leadership.
They point out that he has not been found guilty of
any charges of sexual harassment by an internal party review and is effectively
being asked to apologise for something he has never admitted.
It is far from clear that they will back Mr Clegg's
demand for the whip to be withdrawn.
But Mr Clegg made clear that a vote to restore the
whip to Lord Rennard would be a challenge his authority and warned
"matters would not rest there".
"Clearly it would be in defiance of basic
decency, it would be in defiance of what the independent formal processes have
recommended, in defiance of me and in defiance of the president of the
party," he said in a round of interviews this morning.
Lord Rennard won the backing of Lib Dem Euro MP
Chris Davies, who and attacked Mr Clegg's handling of the row.
Speaking of the allegations, Mr Davies told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: "This isn't Jimmy
Savile, it is touching someone's leg six years ago, at a meeting, through
clothing.
"This is the equivalent of a few years ago, an
Italian man pinching a woman's bottom. How much more must this man be made to
suffer through the media condemnation that comes out day after day fed by the
party leadership?"
Mr Davies added: "The whole thing has become
like the Salem witch trials... A good man has been publicly destroyed through
the media with the apparent support of Nick Clegg.
It is completely out of proportion, nonsense and
outrageous."
Meanwhile, the Lib Dem peer Lord Carlile, who has been offering
legal advice to Lord Rennard, warned during an interview on the Sky News yesterday
that the row could escalate.
He said: "Here, we have a situation in which
there has been found to be no case against Lord Rennard but he is being lined
up against the wall by people who are trying to force him to apologise in a way
no lawyer would advise and in which he should not apologise for all kinds of
reasons."
He added that if the whip was removed then
"the matter could unfortunately end up in the public law courts".
He added: "Nobody wants that to
happen and I don't begin to understand why Nick Clegg has intervened after a
process which has been concluded in Lord Rennard's favour."
But Mr Clegg told ITV's "Daybreak" that there were
no grounds for "legal sabre-rattling", because the demand for an
apology had not been instituted by him, but was recommended by Mr Webster, who
said it was a matter of "common manners".
Mr Webster said: "The suggestion
that Lord Rennard might wish to apologise was not one I envisaged as being
contentious.
"I viewed Lord Rennard, from the
weight of the evidence submitted, as being someone who would wish to apologise
to those whom he had made to feel uncomfortable, even if he had done so
inadvertently. I would consider it to be common manners."
Asked whether his inability simply to
impose his will on the party in the Rennard affair exposed flaws in the Liberal
Democrats' internal processes, Mr Clegg said: "I admit that some people
sometimes think that, because I'm the leader of a political party, I somehow
should act as if I'm the leader of a sect. I'm not.
"Of course, leadership is partly
about direct powers. Leadership is also a process of persuasion and setting out
your views."
Former leader Lord Ashdown backed Mr
Clegg and signalled his reservations Lord Carlile's role.
"I fear he is advising Chris
Rennard as a lawyer, but not as a friend," he wrote on Twitter.
Lib Dem peer Lord Macdonald, a former
director of public prosecutions, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was
"perfectly reasonable" to ask Lord Rennard to apologise.
"I don't believe you can
cherry-pick. If you are going to accept the primary finding, that Lord Rennard
cannot be shown according to the criminal standard of proof, beyond reasonable
doubt, to have behaved inappropriately, I believe you also have to accept the
secondary conclusion, which is that according to Mr Webster there was broadly
credible evidence that he had behaved in a way that violated the personal space
of those women.
"As Mr Webster put it, that he
had caused distress and that he should apologise."