Conservatives quietly restore Lord Ranger’s whip after bar ban

Lord Ranger’s suspension followed a report by the Lords conduct committee, which found that he behaved aggressively in Parliament’s Strangers’ Bar in January.

• EasternEye
• 25 October, 2024

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By: EasternEye

THE CONSERVATIVE Party has quietly reinstated Lord Ranger to the party after he was suspended from the House of Lords and banned from Parliament’s bars for drunken bullying.

According to The Mirror, Lord Ranger of Northwood, who resigned the Tory whip in May following the incident, had his party whip quietly restored in August.

Lord Ranger’s suspension followed a report by the Lords conduct committee, which found that he behaved aggressively in Parliament’s Strangers’ Bar in January. The report described Lord Ranger as “visibly drunk” and stated that he made “inappropriate comments” and invaded people’s personal space.

His suspension from the House of Lords began on 18 July and lasts three weeks, with an additional bar ban extending until May 2025. The Lords Standards Commissioner had initially recommended a one-week suspension, but the conduct committee increased it due to the “particularly serious” nature of his behaviour.

Witnesses recalled that Lord Ranger had confronted two complainants, making comments about a publication as “a porn magazine” and attempting to hold one of their hands. One witness also reported that he warned them to “think about who they might be f*****g talking to” and advised them to “do their f*****g research,” as reported by The Mirror.

Lord Ranger expressed regret, saying he had no clear memory of the incident but felt “deeply mortified” by the reports. In a letter to the complainants, he apologised, stating that the behaviour described was “out of character” and attributed it to stress over family health issues at the time.

The Conservative Party has not issued a statement regarding the decision to reinstate the whip.