Lord Ahmed: Call to strip child sex abuse peer of title

Lord Ahmed, pictured arriving at court in late November, resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020

A peer who was found guilty of sexually abusing two children in the 1970s should be be stripped of his title, an MP has said.

Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy and attempted rape of a young girl.

Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford said his peerage was "unacceptable".

Although he resigned from the House of Lords in 2020, only an Act of Parliament with Royal Assent can strip him of his title.

The 64-year-old, who was created a life peer in 1998, also resigned from the Labour party in 2013.

Conservative MP Mr Stafford has started a petition calling for his title to be removed, describing it as "an insult to his victims".

He said: "There is no getting away from the fact that this paedophile is in possession of a peerage and this is absolutely and categorically unacceptable. He should be stripped of this immediately.

"I will be speaking to my colleagues in the Department of Justice to ensure that this individual is not allowed to continue to hold a peerage, which would be an insult to his victims."

Ahmed will be sentenced on 4 February

Ahmed had denied the charges but was convicted on Wednesday after a trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

The court was told the repeated abuse happened in Rotherham when the defendant, appearing under his real name of Nazir Ahmed, was a teenager.

Jurors were told he had attempted to rape the girl in the early 1970s, when the defendant was aged 16 or 17 but she was much younger.

The attack on the boy, who was aged under 11 at the time, happened during the same period.

Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020 after a conduct committee report concluded he had sexually and emotionally exploited a vulnerable woman who sought his help.

A spokesperson for the House of Lords said his title was separate from his former status as a member of the House.

The spokesperson said: "The House of Lords has no authority to remove the title from a Peer which is created by letters patent from the Monarch.

A peerage (as opposed to expelling a Member from the House) can only be removed by a primary act of Parliament."

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A government spokesperson said: "Lord Nazir Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020. As legal proceedings are ongoing, we cannot comment any further."

Speaking on BBC Radio Sheffield, Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, said it made a mockery of the peerage system if he was allowed to keep his title but it was not an easy process.

She added: "It's going to take a lot to make it happen and that's a fault with our system."

Ms Champion praised Ahmed's victims for speaking out and said his conviction proved no-one was "untouchable".

"The verdict shows that even after 50 years if you commit a crime, the police, CPS, victims and survivors will come forward and will make sure justice is done and that's a huge victory for those survivors."