Lord Sewel, a senior figure in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, has resigned from his post as a deputy speaker after video emerged that allegedly showed him snorting cocaine in the company of prostitutes.
He could also face a police investigation over the scandal.
“Today’s revelations about the behavior of Lord Sewel are both shocking and unacceptable,” Baroness D’Souza, the speaker of the House of Lords, said in a statement Sunday. “Lord Sewel has this morning resigned as chairman of committees.”
In one scene, the edited video that was published by The Sun on Sunday, a British tabloid newspaper, appears to show Sewel inhaling a line of white powder with a rolled up five pound note.
The video also includes snippets of conversations allegedly between Sewel and the female sex workers in which he seems to make a thinly veiled reference to cocaine, as well as a derogatory remark about women.
The Sun reported that the events depicted in the video, as well as other compromising acts, took place in Sewel’s London apartment near the UK Parliament in recent weeks.
Attempts by CNN to reach Sewel for comment Sunday and early Monday were unsuccessful, and major UK media outlets weren’t reporting any statement from him on the matter.
“These serious allegations will be referred to the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards and the Metropolitan Police for investigation as a matter of urgency,” D’Souza said in her statement.
As chairman of committees of the House of Lords, Sewel was responsible for supervising the activities of the chamber’s assorted committees, including the one for privileges and conduct.
The chairman of committees is first among a panel of 20 to 25 deputy speakers in the House of Lords. Sewel, whose full name is John Buttifant Sewel, had held the politically independent position since 2012.
Before that, he was a member of the Labour Party, serving as a government minister between 1997 and 1999. During that time, he worked on efforts to set up the new Scottish Parliament.
