Lord in critical condition after mobility scooter crash

Lord Taylor apologised to the House of Lords for his role in a newspaper sting

A Labour peer has been seriously injured after his mobility scooter collided with a van outside Parliament.

Lord Taylor of Blackburn, 87, was left in a "stable" but critical condition after being taken to a south London hospital about 18:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Lord Taylor was the Labour leader of Blackburn Council in the 1970s before being made a Life Peer in May 1978 and becoming a businessman.

The driver stopped at the scene but was not arrested, Scotland Yard said.

The Labour peer was struck near an exit from the Houses of Parliament during rush hour on a busy junction in Westminster.

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He became a member of Blackburn Town Council in 1954 and was its leader from 1972-76.

In 2009 Lord Taylor was suspended from the Lords for six months after allegedly offering to help a business secure favourable changes in legislation for a fee in a newspaper "sting" operation. It was the first time in 350 years that peers have been banned in this way.

Lord Taylor and three other peers were caught speaking to undercover journalists posing as lobbyists and appeared willing to amend a Bill in return for cash.