An ex-Labour peer is set to be banned from Parliament for life after his repeated breaches of the House of Lords’ code of conduct – including sexual misconduct.
It has been recommended that Lord Stone of Blackheath, a former Marks & Spencer managing director, be permanently excluded from both the Lords and Commons.
The latest findings against the 83-year-old, who was made a peer by Tony Blair in 1997, showed he had breached rules on sexual misconduct and harassment.
He is revealed to have told two charity workers he would ‘like to kiss’ and that sex ‘is always on my mind’, while also touching the hair of one of the women ‘multiple times’.
In a separate incident, Lord Stone is also said to have ‘mocked’ the African accent of a parliamentary staff member who was providing him with IT support.
The latest report by the Lords Conduct Committee is the fourth time since 2019 that the watchdog has found Lord Stone breached conduct rules.
He quit the Lords in December last year following the launch of the latest investigation.
The committee has now recommended he be permanently excluded from the Lords estate, while Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, is set to be asked to ban him from the Commons.
It has been recommended that Lord Stone of Blackheath, a former Marks & Spencer managing director, be permanently excluded from both the Lords and Commons
The latest complaints against Lord Stone came despite him having previously been ordered to undertake bespoke training and behaviour change coaching.
The conduct committee considered a report by the Lords Commissioner for Standards, Martin Jelley, who upheld three complaints against the peer.
In a complaint from two employees of a charity, referred to as AB and CD, Lord Stone was said to have told one of the women, within moments of meeting on the parliamentary estate that ‘I was attractive and he’d like to kiss me’.
In her complaint, AB added: ‘This was after asking me about my facial scars and how I got them. There were many other vile comments made throughout the tour he led.
‘Of note, my colleague, a mixed race wheelchair user was also asked whether she was suicidal, and had her hair touched multiple times as he remarked how much he liked it.
‘Both of us were so stunned by this behaviour, doing our best to steer the conversation into a more positive and appropriate space, but consistently being ambushed.
‘For instance, when talking about the experiences of the facial difference community, he said ‘I must ask about sex, because it’s always on my mind’, to which again we were stunned, and did our best to steer the conversation back on track.’
In her own evidence, CD said Lord Stone had informed them of his ‘neurodivergence’, and suggested he ‘often says the wrong thing’ and was ‘Alzheimer’s-y’.
In his response to the investigation, Lord Stone did not not challenge the allegation that he had asked AB about her facial difference or that he had told her she was attractive and that he would like to kiss her.
Nor did he challenge the claim that he had said ‘I must ask about sex, because it is always on my mind’.
Lord Stone’s actions were found to have constituted sexual misconduct and harassment.
He was also found to have breached rules on harassment in a separate incident with a parliamentary staff member, referred to as EF.
During a call in which EF was providing technical support to Lord Stone, the peer was said to have asked EF to repeat the word ‘search’ several times.
‘Each time I said the word, he corrected my pronunciation and asked me to say it the same way he was pronouncing it,’ the complainant said.
‘The repeated corrections did not feel helpful. Instead, they felt mocking and dismissive.
‘I felt that my African accent was being singled out, rather than there being a genuine difficulty in understanding the instruction.’
In his response to the investigation, Lord Stone issued a ‘serious apology’ to EF and explained he had been ‘in a state of very high anxiety’.
In 2024, Lord Stone was found to have bullied two parliamentary security officers in an incident relating to a suitcase.
And, in 2019, he was revealed to have used the racial slur ‘n*****’ numerous times during an official inquiry while defending himself against accusations of transphobia.
He was also investigated over two accusations of sexual harassment.
The same year, Lord Stone lost the Labour whip in the Lords and subsequently sat as an non-affiliated peer.
