“It is clear from both Lord Dholakia’s and Bell Ribeiro-Addy’s complaints and interviews that the incident had a significant negative effect on each of them."
A Tory party peer is facing a three-week suspension for calling another peer ‘Lord Poppadom’ and for touching an MP’s hair without consent.
Baroness Catherine Meyer is accused of referring to Lord Dholakia as “Lord Poppadom” twice during a taxi journey while on a visit to Rwanda with parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in February.
On the same trip, she also asked Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy if she could touch her braids and did so before receiving a reply.
Baroness Meyer initially denied the ‘Lord Poppadom’ accusations, however after evidence from two witnesses, including Ms Ribeiro-Addy, she admitted the incident took place at the end of a long day and after a dinner where she had drunk “possibly three glasses of wine”.
The report from the Lords Conduct Committee concludes: “The Commissioner concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that Lady Meyer had indeed twice referred to Lord Dholakia as “Lord Poppadom”.
The committee also found that the “lasting impact” on Ms Ribeiro-Addy from the hair incident and the name calling was “apparent from her complaint”. The report stated: “Not only did she feel uncomfortable in the moment, but her discomfort and anger increased over time: “With every week and every request to just write my complaint I grew angrier and more distressed about the situation. Unable to put the complaint into words without becoming very upset.”
It concluded: “It is clear from both Lord Dholakia’s and Bell Ribeiro-Addy’s complaints and interviews that the incident had a significant negative effect on each of them. The incident clearly upset them both, to the point where neither felt comfortable being a member of the same committee as Baroness Meyer.”
Alongside recommending a three-week suspension, the Conduct Committee recommended that Baroness Meyer undertake bespoke behaviour training.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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