Tory peer facing three-week suspension for calling colleague 'Lord Poppadom' and touching MP's hair
A baroness is facing a three-week suspension from the House of Lords for calling a British-Asian peer “Lord Poppadom”, and touching the hair of a Black female MP.
Complaints were made about Baroness Meyer about two separate incidents during a visit of the Joint Committee on Human Rights to Rwanda in February this year.
She was found to have twice called Lord Dholakia "Lord Poppadom", and to have touched the hair of Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy without consent.
The Lords standards watchdog found that Meyer breached harassment rules with the comments about Lord Dholakia that had a "racial element", but "had no malicious or racist intention" in the incident with Ribeiro-Addy.
Meyer is the 71-year-old widow of former US ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer.
The report into her conduct says that during the trip to Rwanda, she mistakenly address Lord Dholakia as "Lord Popat" - another South Asian member of the Lords. It says she "immediately apologised", but other members of the party in the taxi said they heard her twice call him "Lord Poppadom".
Lord Dholakia says he didn't hear the remarks himself, but the watchdog said other members of the group did.
Baroness Meyer initially denied the accusations, calling them "unfounded and baseless", but later admitted "it is possible I said it, but I don't remember", as she had drunk "possibly three glasses of wine".
The complaint by Ribeiro-Addy said that one evening on the trip Baroness Meyer complimented her hair and asked if she could touch it - "without waiting for a reply or for permission Lady Meyer then reached out and lifted one of Ms Ribeiro-Addy’s braids".
Baroness Meyer said that she meant this as a compliment and didn't realise it would be unwelcome.
She told the watchdog she immediately understood, from Ribeiro-Addy’s body language, that, “Oh, gosh, I did the wrong thing”.
In a report published on Thursday, the House of Lords Conduct Committee said: “We have carefully considered the Commissioner’s report and his proposed sanction.
"Taking all the relevant factors into account, we endorse his recommended sanction, and accordingly recommend to the House that Baroness Meyer be suspended from the service of the House for three weeks, and that she undertake bespoke behaviour training.”
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The commissioner had said: “Due to the significance of Baroness Meyer’s breach of the Code of Conduct and the impact of her behaviour on the complainants, I consider a short suspension to be justified in the circumstances.
“I also consider that behaviour training would be beneficial for Baroness Meyer, to address the specific behaviour in this case. I therefore recommend that Baroness Meyer undertake bespoke behaviour training provided by an approved external provider.”
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