Nazir Ahmed

Nazir Ahmed in 2018.

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Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed (1957–) is a British politician and a former member of the Labour Party who was a member of the House of Lords. He's best known for his controversies.

In April 2012, Ahmed reportedly denounced the US government's bounty on Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, calling it an insult to all Muslims and stating that "If the US can announce a reward of $10 million for the captor of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of 10 million pounds on President Obama and his predecessor George Bush".^[1] This resulted in him being temporarily suspended from the Labour Party.^[2] He denied making these statements,^[3] even though the website of the university that was hosting him at the time also quotes him as saying much the same thing in its summary of the event.^[4]

Ahmed was jailed for 12 weeks in 2009 for dangerous driving in an incident that resulted in a man's death.^[5] In March 2013 it was reported that he blamed his prison sentence on a Jewish conspiracy,^[6] which resulted in him being suspended for a second time,^[7] and he later resigned from the Labour Party due to the controversy.^[8]

In 2019, Ahmed was charged with attempted rape and indecent assault between 1971 and 1974.^[9] The victims were a boy and a girl, both under the age of 13. The incidents took place when Ahmed was a teenager, aged 14 to 17. He was found guilty at the 2022 trial and sentenced to five years and six months. The sentence was later reduced to two and a half years on appeal.^[10]

He resigned from the House of Lords in 2020 following the result of a Lords Conduct Committee investigation^[11] that concluded he had exploited a member of the public who had sought his help to report an exploitive faith healer to the police, instead coercing her into a sexual relationship. In proper governmental fashion, it took a news report on the issue after she was denied an investigation to get the government to actually look into the complaints.^[12]

Shamefully, although no longer a member of the House of Lords following his resignation, he retains his title as a life peer, which can not be rescinded without an act of parliament.^[13]

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