Yesterday Lord Sewel stepped down from the Lords after the Sun on Sunday published photos of the former deputy speaker snorting cocaine through a five pound note in the company of two prostitutes. While Labour were quick to suspend him from the party, one man has come to the defence of the disgraced peer. Step forward Lembit Öpik.
The former Lib Dem MP says that Sewel should be commended for stepping down:
‘He’s got to be respected for this. People need to lay off him now. He’s done exactly what people wanted him to do.’
What’s more, Öpik thinks that there is still hope for Lord Sewel, claiming he is now in the perfect position to launch a new career cleaning up the murky world of Westminster politics. He tells Steerpike that Sewel’s experience ‘could be a catalyst’ to change the Commons:
‘He could grasp the mettle and say “Okay, I was hypocritical in talking about standards in one way and behaving a different way, but I recognise that’s because our society is hypocritical and Parliament is hypocritical”.
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