Controversial British Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham leaves his post from the Upper House of British Parliament after a string of controversies.
BBC aired an investigative story in 2019 on Lord Ahmed. In the programme, a Kashmiri woman accused the Lord of sexually exploiting her after promising to help her to retrieve money from a fake sheikh.
He is also facing a trial along with his two brothers at Sheffield Crown Court on January 25, 2022 for rape and indecent assault on a boy and girl.
The Rotherham-based controversial peer was charged with two counts of attempted rape of a girl under 16 and one count of indecent assault against a boy in the early 1970s. Lord Nazir’s elder brother Mohamed Farouq, 68, of Worrygoose Lane, Rotherham, is charged with four counts of indecent assault against a boy under 14. Another brother Mohammed Tariq, 63, of Gerard Road, Rotherham, is charged with two counts of indecent assault against a boy under 14.
The controversial lord told Geo News that he has decided to retire from the House of Lords after 23 years of service.
It is understood that Lord Nazir wrote to the clerk of the House of Lords a month ago, expressing his wish to retire. The UK Parliament confirmed to Lord Nazir that his retirement allocation had been approved under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 “as of 14 November 2020”.
The Lord Speaker on Monday announced in the UK Parliament that Lord Nazir has retired at the start of business on November 16, 2020.
Lord Nazir made history when he became the first Muslim, Kashmiri, and Pakistani to enter the House of Lords as a Labour peer in 1998. Prior to that he was a councillor at Rotherham. He was a confidante of then prime minister Tony Blair. He later turned against him over Iraq War.
BBC Investigation
BBC’s Newsnight investigative team accused Lord Nazir Ahmed of involved in a sex for favour scam after two women come forward to share their experience with BBC.
According to Miss Tahira Zaman, a single mother, there are at least five other women want to take action against the Lord but are afraid of doing so because of community wrath and family honour. The victim received a threatening mail from a senior staff member of the Lord for approaching Police, House of Lords Standards Committee and the Media.
Miss Zaman alleged that the Lord sexually exploited her on various occasions at his second home in London.
Another victim accused the Lord of asking her to spend a night with him in London in return of helping her husband in a business tussle.
The Lord was involved in many other controversies too. He was convicted and jailed in 2009 for a reckless driving accident. He had sent text messages while driving, which hit a driver of a stationary car stranded on the M1 highway.
In 2013, Lord Nazir Ahmed blamed his conviction in the driving accident on a “Jewish conspiracy”. The comment led to the Labour Party suspending him; he resigned from the party later that year.
