Lord Ahmed: Debate call over stripping sex abuse peer's title

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

MPs should debate stripping a convicted child sex offender of his peerage to show zero tolerance for "vile monsters", the Commons has heard.

Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was convicted on 5 January of a serious sexual assault against a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl in the 1970s.

Alex Stafford, Conservative MP for Rother Valley, has made a fresh call for action against the 64-year-old former politician.

Ahmed will be sentenced on 4 February.

• Read more Yorkshire stories

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

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Stafford asked Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg if he agreed "with me and the 2,000 people from Rother Valley who have signed my petition" that a debate should be held examining whether Ahmed's title should be stripped.

Mr Stafford also asked Mr Rees-Mogg if he agreed that would "send a clear message we will never tolerate any vile monsters who are guilty of heinous crimes against children, and they should never have such prestigious titles".

Mr Rees-Mogg replied that legislation was required to remove a peerage, adding: "I do slightly wonder what satisfaction it will give to the person he refers to being called 'my Lord' while he is serving time at Her Majesty's expense.

"I think the disgrace he has felt means his title has become, I hope, wormwood."

Ahmed will be sentenced on 4 February at Sheffield Crown Court

During Ahmed's trial, Sheffield Crown Court heard the repeated sexual abuse happened in Rotherham when he was a teenager.

The jury heard Ahmed, appearing under his real name of Nazir Ahmed, attempted to rape the girl 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, also happened during the same period.

Ahmed, who was created a life peer in 1998, also resigned from the Labour party in 2013.