John Sewel, Baron Sewel

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John Buttifant Sewel, Baron Sewel , CBE (born January 15, 1946 ) is a British economist , university professor and Labor Party politician who was a Life Peer member of the House of Lords from 1996 to 2015 .

Life

University professor and local politician

After attending school, Sewel completed a degree in economics at the University of Durham and the University College of Swansea , from which he graduated with a Master of Science (M.Sc.). He completed another postgraduate course at the University of Aberdeen with a Doctor of Philosophy ( Ph.D. ) and then began an academic career there in 1969, during which he was initially a research scientist (Research Fellow ), Lecturer and Senior Lecturer.

He started in the Labor Party mid-1970s, his political career in local politics and was 1974-1984 member of the city council of Aberdeen and in the meantime from 1977 to 1980 Chairman of the Council. At the same time, he was President of the Convention for Scottish Local Authorities from 1982 to 1984 . For his services in local politics, he became Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1984 and was also a member of the Scottish Accounts Commission for Scotland from 1987 to 1996 .

While he was Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences from 1989 to 1997 , he most recently took on the role of Vice-Principal at the University of Aberdeen from 1995 to 1997. During this time he was a member of the Scottish Constitutional Commission from 1994 to 1995 .

House of Lords

By a letters patent dated January 10, 1996 Sewel was raised to the British nobility as a life peer with the title Baron Sewel , of Gilcomstoun in the District of the City of Aberdeen . Shortly thereafter, he was introduced as a member of the House of Lords . In the House of Lords he belonged to the faction of the Labor Party, which expelled him shortly before his resignation in July 2015.

At the beginning of his membership of the House of Lords, he was initially spokesman for the opposition Labor Group for Scotland between 1996 and 1997 , before becoming Parliamentary Undersecretary of State in the Scottish Office after the Labor Party won the general election on May 1, 1997 and Prime Minister Tony Blair took office ) and was responsible for agriculture, the environment, fisheries and forestry until July 1999.

After leaving the government, Lord Sewel took over a professorship at the University of Aberdeen from 1999 to 2004 and at the same time was first Vice-Principal from 1999 to 2001 and then until 2004 Senior Vice-Principal of this university.

He has also been a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly since 2005, where he has also been chairman of the Subcommittee on Transatlantic Economic Relations since 2006. He has also been a member of the House of Lords Committee for the European Union since 2006 and, since 2007, chairman of its sub-committee D, which deals with the environment and agriculture in the EU in the House of Lords.

Lord Sewel, the 2008 from the University of Aberdeen an honorary doctorate of law degree (Hon. LL.D. was awarded), 2010 was opposition spokesman for Scotland and is since 2012 Chairman of Committees ( Chairman of the Committee ) and Deputy Lord Speaker .

Scandal and resignation

On July 26, 2015, Lord Sewel announced his resignation as deputy Lord Speaker after the Sun on Sunday published pictures of a sex party at which the Lord consumed cocaine half-naked with prostitutes . The affair moved further because Sewel is chairman of the Lords privileges and conduct committee of the House of Lords , which has to decide on the observance of moral standards of the Lords. After the allegations became known, he was expelled from the Labor Party. Labor politician called him a "disgrace" ( a disgrace ) and asked him to return his mandate to the upper house, otherwise he would be excluded. After a police search of the house on the evening of July 26th, he declared that he wanted to be granted leave of absence from the House of Lords, but that he intended to return after the police investigation had ended. A possible exclusion procedure from the House of Lords must wait for the end of the police investigation. On July 28, 2015, he announced that he was leaving the House of Lords with immediate effect. This is not important for the police investigation; the question of whether an internal investigation of the behavior is still necessary initially remained open.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lord Sewel quits as Lords deputy speaker after drug claims. BBC News, July 26, 2015, accessed July 26, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Lord Sewel faces call to quit Parliament over drugs claim. BBC News, July 27, 2015, accessed July 27, 2015 .
  3. ^ Nicholas Watt: Scotland Yard investigates allegations of drug use by Lord Sewel . The Guardian , July 27, 2015, accessed July 28, 2015.
  4. ↑ Nicholas Watt: Lord Sewel quits House of Lords over sex and drugs claims . The Guardian , July 28, 2015, accessed July 28, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Sewel, John, Baron Sewel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sewel, John Buttifant, Baron Sewel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and economist
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1946