A British lord has resigned from parliament's unelected upper chamber after a second investigation found him guilty on Wednesday of sexually harassing a leading women's rights campaigner, in the country's latest political sex scandal.
The parliamentary committee reaffirmed its recommendation that Lord Lester be suspended from the House of Lords for offering Jasvinder Sanghera "corrupt inducements to sleep with him" and threatening "unspecified consequences" if she refused.
"We recommend that the House should endorse the conclusions of the independent Commissioner for Standards that Lord Lester of Herne Hill breached the requirement of the Code of Conduct ... by sexually harassing the complainant," it said.
"We further recommend that Lord Lester of Herne Hill be suspended from the House until 3 June 2022."
Lester, 82, once an eminent human rights lawyer, denied the allegations. As he announced his retirement on Tuesday, the House will no longer vote on whether to give him the longest parliamentary suspension in modern history.
Britain's parliament last year became embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal amid the #MeToo movement with two ministers losing their posts and others investigated over inappropriate behaviour, prompting calls to end a "locker room" culture.
A study this year showed nearly one in five people working in Britain's parliament were sexually harassed or witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the past year.
Sanghera, founder of the charity Karma Nirvana which campaigns against forced marriage, told the investigation that Lester repeatedly groped her 12 years ago, despite her protests, when they were working on draft legislation.
She said Lester promised to make her a baroness "within a year" if she slept with him, but would ensure she never had a seat in the House of Lords if she refused.
Sanghera, who wrote about her escape from a forced marriage in her book "Shame", said she kept quiet about the harassment for years because she doubted she would be believed, but later decided to speak out in order to break the silence.
The parliamentary committee issued its second report on Lester on Wednesday because the House last month voted against its recommendation to ban him, instead returning the matter to the committee for further consideration.
"Lord Lester has made the right decision in retiring from the House of Lords," a spokeswoman for Lester's Liberal Democrat party said.
