A baroness is facing a three-week suspension from the Lords for calling a British-Asian peer “Lord Poppadom” and touching an MP’s braids without her permission.
Catherine Meyer was found to have breached harassment rules with her behaviour towards Lord Dholakia and Bell Ribeiro-Addy during a visit to Rwanda with the Joint Committee on Human Rights, of which she was a member.
She is said to have called Lord Dholakia as “Lord Poppadom” during a taxi journey on the trip, having previously apologised for mistakenly referring to him as “Lord Popat”, another peer of South Asian heritage.
Lady Meyer initially denied the allegation, but after hearing witness evidence said the incident took place at the end of a long day after she had drunk “possibly three glasses of wine”, the Lords’ Conduct Committee said.
Lord Dholakia said it had made him “very annoyed, very angry that people should use expressions of this particular nature”.
Parliament’s standards commissioner found that “on the balance of probabilities” she had used the phrase twice and that the harassment “related to race”.
In a separate incident on the same visit in February, Conservative Lady Meyer complimented Ms Ribeiro-Addy’s hair and asked her if she could touch it, without waiting for a reply or permission.
The facts of the incident involving the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill were not disputed, the committee said.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy said it had made her feel “extremely uncomfortable” and “as if she could just do whatever she wanted”.
“The idea that I would do that to another woman, particularly a white woman, ask her if it’s hers, ask to touch it and make a big deal out of it, it just wouldn’t happen… When you’ve seen it explained to people in the past why it’s offensive to touch black people’s – black women in particular – hair… I don’t have the right to protest because I’m seen as being rude or difficult, and it’s just not for me to have an issue with it… to me, it’s definitely a microaggression,” she said.
In responding to Ms Ribeiro-Addy’s complaint, Lady Meyer said that she had intended a friendly gesture, and had been unaware that it would be unwelcome.
She said she understood from the MP’s subsequent body language that: “Oh, gosh, I did the wrong thing”.
The commissioner recommended a three-week suspension from the Lords as a sanction, describing the racial element in the first case as an “aggravating” factor, as well as for Lady Meyer to undertake “bespoke behaviour training”.
In a report published on Thursday, the Conduct Committee said: “We have carefully considered the Commissioner’s report and his proposed sanction.
“Taking all the relevant factors into account, we endorse his recommended sanction, and accordingly recommend to the House that Baroness Meyer be suspended from the service of the House for three weeks, and that she undertake bespoke behaviour training.”
The commissioner had said: “Due to the significance of Baroness Meyer’s breach of the Code of Conduct and the impact of her behaviour on the complainants, I consider a short suspension to be justified in the circumstances.
“Accordingly, I recommend that Baroness Meyer be suspended from the House for three weeks. In determining the length of suspension, I considered incident 1, where Baroness Meyer twice referred to Lord Dholakia as ‘Lord Poppadom’, to be the more serious of the two breaches, given the racial element to it. The recommended suspension is because of this breach.
“I also consider that behaviour training would be beneficial for Baroness Meyer, to address the specific behaviour in this case.
“I therefore recommend that Baroness Meyer undertake bespoke behaviour training provided by an approved external provider.”
Baroness Meyer has been contacted for comment.
