Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed
Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed (Urdu: نذیر احمد , born 24 April 1957) is a former British Labour politician of Pakistani origin. He was appointed a life peer in 1998 by the Labour Government.
Many of his political activities related to the Muslim community both in the UK and overseas. In 2013, he alleged a Jewish conspiracy for a prison sentence he received following a fatal motorway crash. He was suspended from the Labour Party and later resigned his membership.
He faced expulsion from the House of Lords in 2020 on account of sexually exploiting a woman who had approached him in 2017 in his capacity as a member of the House, and resigned from the House after a recommendation of its Conduct Committee that he be expelled, but before it was implemented. However, he continued to be a life peer, although not a member of the House. On 5 January 2022, he was found guilty of historic sex offences, committed whilst he himself was a minor, being the attempted rape of a child under 13 years of age and sexual assault of another. He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
Quotes about Ahmed[edit]
- Conservative MP Mr Stafford has started a petition calling for his title to be removed, describing it as "an insult to his victims".
He said: "There is no getting away from the fact that this paedophile is in possession of a peerage and this is absolutely and categorically unacceptable. He should be stripped of this immediately.
"I will be speaking to my colleagues in the Department of Justice to ensure that this individual is not allowed to continue to hold a peerage, which would be an insult to his victims.- Alexander Stafford, as cited in BBC "Lord Ahmed: Call to strip child sex abuse peer of title", BBC News (6 January 2022).
- On Friday, Mr Justice Lavender told Ahmed: "Your actions have had profound and lifelong effects on the girl and the boy, who have lived with what you did to them for between 46 and 53 years.
"Their statements express more eloquently than I ever could how your actions have affected their lives in so many different and damaging ways."
The survivor of the attempted rapes read her own victim personal statement in court, saying: "An overwhelming feeling of shame remained with me throughout my childhood and early adult years.
"It was a burden I was made to carry, and it silenced me for many years. It is now time for me to pass that burden to him – the paedophile who I know feels no personal shame."- "Peer Nazir Ahmed jailed for sexual offences against children", The Guardian (4 February 2022).
