We've Got To Keep The #Metoo Conversation Going

Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of charity Karma Nirvana and prominent campaigner against forced marriage, hit the headlines last year when she alleged that House of Lords peer Lord Lester had touched her inappropriately and offered her a peerage in return for sex.

Lester maintained that the allegations were ‘completely untrue’. The Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee investigated the claims, first made in November 2017, and concluded they were credible, recommending that Lester be suspended until June 2022. This sanction was then blocked during a debate at the House of Lords, during which Lord Pannick, a friend of Lester’s, tabled an amendment arguing that the investigation had been ‘unfair’ because the process hadn’t allowed for Sanghera to be cross-examined (the procedure, set out in 2010 and approved by the House of Lords, states that investigations should not include cross-examination). Just before the Christmas break, days before a second vote upheld his original suspension, Lester resigned from the Lords – and the members agreed to make tackling sexual harassment claims a key priority for 2019. So how did it feel to be responsible for starting what’s being called Britain’s parliamentary version of Time’s Up? Jasvinder talks to Grazia…