A gay MP has said she will report a peer to the police for an alleged hate crime after he called her a “queer”.
Hannah Bardell had accused independent unionist peer Lord Maginnis of verbally abusing security staff on the parliamentary estate after he forgot his security pass.
Peers, MPs and others who have undergone security checks receive parliamentary passes which enable them to enter the estate at several points.
READ MORE: Scottish independence sparks row amongst Labour leader hopefuls
The HuffPost news website reported that Lord Maginnis did not deny the SNP MP’s claims and quoted him saying: “Queers like Ms Bardell don’t particularly annoy me. OK, she’s got her cheap publicity out of it.”
Speaking during business questions, Ms Bardell told MPs: “I’m sorry to say that the member from the other place (the House of Lords) who I have complained about has now launched a homophobic attack on me in the press.
“This will be reported to the police and I know that I and others consider this to be a hate crime.”
Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg told MPs: “The attack on the honourable lady was unutterably disgraceful and she is clearly owed an apology by the noble lord for what he said about her.
“I think everybody who heard about that was shocked by the comments that he is reported to have made and has not denied.
“I think they are really appalling, and I know we are not allowed to criticise members of the other house, the other place, except on a specific motion, but I think under these circumstances we are allowed to stretch the rules.”
On Wednesday, Ms Bardell, MP for Livingston, outlined the alleged incident to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle in a point of order.
She said: “Yesterday, on re-entering the building for the first time after Christmas, I witnessed one of the worst cases of abuse of security staff that I have seen in my time here.
“One of the members of the other place – who I will name so as not to incriminate anybody else: Lord Ken Maginnis – had forgotten his pass, something we’ve all been guilty of.
“However, instead of taking the advice of the security staff – who, as we all know, are here for our security and our safety – he proceeded to verbally abuse and shout at both the members of staff, calling them ‘crooked’, saying ‘did they not know who he was, he’d been here 46 years’, and refusing to take the advice and assistance of both myself, the security staff and the police that then attended.”
Lord Maginnis was formerly an Ulster Unionist Party MP and later represented the party in the Lords.
READ MORE: SNP says Scotland has right to ‘alternative future’ ahead of UK Brexit talks
In 2012, he announced his decision to resign his membership after the leadership distanced themselves when he referred to gay marriage as “unnatural and deviant behaviour”.
His affiliation in the Lords since July 2013 has been listed as Independent Ulster Unionist.
He has been approached for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel