Lord Sewel, a deputy speaker in the upper house of the UK
Parliament, has resigned from his post 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, who is married, and
the female sex workers. In the talks, 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.
London's
Metropolitan Police Service said Monday that it was aware of the allegations
but hadn't yet been asked to investigate.
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.
Sewel has been a
member of the House of Lords since 1996.
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