A member of Britain's House of Lords has resigned as deputy speaker after a British newspaper published a video that allegedly shows him cavorting with prostitutes and snorting cocaine.
EXCLUSIVE: Deputy speaker of the Lords John Sewel caught taking coke with £200-a-night hookers http://t.co/QWy4v2ouDa
Baron John Sewel, who chaired the privileges and conduct committee and was tasked with upholding standards in the House of Lords, was also filmed making racist remarks about Asian women and sniffing powder off a woman's breasts.
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Asian women look innocent but you know they’re whores’ - disgraced peer’s outburst http://t.co/rZid9CqyMD
In the video, published by the Sun on Sunday, the married peer is also heard discussing the £200 ($310) a day he can charge in parliamentary expenses.
"Two hundred a day to buy lunch?" a woman asks him.
"It's not lunch, lovie darling," he replies. "It's paying for this."
The newspaper reported he paid the two prostitutes £200 each.
At the request of Lord Speaker Baroness D'Souza, who described his behaviour as "shocking and unacceptable", Lord Sewel is also facing a police inquiry over his conduct.
"Lord Sewel has this morning resigned as chairman of committees. The House of Lords will continue to uphold standards in public life and will not tolerate departure from these standards," she said in a statement to the BBC.
"These serious allegations will be referred to the House of Lords commissioner for standards and the Metropolitan police for investigation as a matter of urgency."
In a blog post for the Huffington Post earlier this month, Sewel boasted that the House of Lords had passed "stronger sanctions to deal with future behaviour that breaches the Code of Conduct".
"The number of Members who break the House's rules is small," he wrote. "But the actions of a few damage our reputation."