Lord Sewel: Who is former peer facing drug and sex worker claims?

Video footage of the peer allegedly shows him taking drugs while with two sex workers at his London home

Lord Sewel, who has resigned as Lords Deputy Speaker (Suzanne Hubbard/PA Wire )

Former Labour minister Lord Sewel could face a police investigation after a video emerged appearing to show him taking drugs with sex workers.

Footage published by The Sun on Sunday shows the 69-year-old naked alongside two women in his flat in Dolphin Square, Pimlico, central London. At one point, he snorts a white powder alleged to be cocaine from sex worker’s breast.

Lord Speaker Baroness D'Souza branded the married father's behaviour “shocking and unacceptable” and said she was referring him to the police.

Who is Lord Sewel?

Born in January 1946, John Buttifant Sewel was educated at Hanson Boy’s Grammar school in Bradford. After studying for his undergraduate degree at Durham University, he completed his MSc at Swansea in 1970, and graduated with a PhD from the University of Aberdeen in 1977.

Dolphin Square where Lord Sewel allegedly took drugs with prostitutes (Image: PA) (Nick Ansell/PA Wire)

What role is he stepping down from?

Lord Sewel was a key figure in the administration of the House of Lords for many years.

Elected as the chairman of Committees in 2012, earning a salary of £84,000, his responsibilities included heading the Privileges and Conduct Committee.

This role saw him judging the behaviour of disgraced politicians, including Lord Hanningfield who was found to have claimed a £300 allowance for days when he did no parliamentary work.

Lord Sewel will likely now face the panel he used to head, whether or not police decide to take further action.

The peer was also tasked with monitoring the Lords refreshment department, and would be responsible for the substantial public subsidies at bars and restaurants.

Last year, he denied claims from former Commons clerk Malcolm Jack that the Lords had refused to buy champagne jointly over concerns it wouldn’t meet Lords standards.

Lord Sewel was a key figure in the House of Lords (Image: Getty)

Has he always been a politician?

Lord Sewel has spent the majority of his working life researching politics as an academic at the University of Aberdeen.

In 1996, then Labour MP Tony Blair requested that he be made a Labour peer. However, he cut official ties with the party in 2012 to become chairman of Committees. He listed his interests as Who's Who, hill-walking, skiing and watching cricket.

Following Labour’s landslide victory in 1997, he was appointed as minister in the Scottish Office – a position he held until 1999. During this time, he helped to steer through law which led to the creation of the Scottish Parliament. The Sewel Convention, which means that Westminster can only legislate on a devoled area with agreement from Holyrood, is named after him.

By 1999, Lord Sewel left government to return to Aberdeen, to serve as vice principal. He left that role in 2004.

He then moved back into politics and became heavily involved in the Lords, including working as the char of the European Union Committee.

And his life outside work?

Lord Sewel married Rosemay Langeland in 1968. The couple had a son, now 38, a daughter, now 36. He also has two step-children.

He went on to marry Leonara Harding in 1988, then Lady Jennifer in 2005, according to The Telegraph.