Lord Sewel has today quit the House of Lords and finally apologised for the 'pain and embarrassment' he caused his humiliated family. The disgraced peer caved in to pressure and resigned his peerage saying: 'I can best serve the House by leaving it'.
He added: 'I hope my decision will limit and help repair the damage I have done to an institution I hold dear. Finally, I want to apologise for the pain and embarrassment I have caused.' It came after yet more lurid details about his sex life emerged, including his boast of bedding a mystery BBC presenter.
He told two prostitutes he snorted cocaine with: 'I had her in the attic'. Lord Sewel's reputation is in tatters after a video emerged of him cavorting with two sex workers in his central London flat, behind the back of his third wife Lady Jennifer.
The married father of four was filmed necking champagne and vodka before using a £5 note to snort lines of cocaine from a table and later from the breasts of a sex worker 45 years his junior. Last night a Scotland Yard drugs squad with sniffer dogs raided the London flat where he held his sex and drugs parties. They searched the flat for three hours and left carrying several bags of evidence as part of their investigation.
Sewel, who has not been arrested, is said to have fled the property in Pimlico's Dolphin Square development on Saturday night and has not been seen since. The next morning he quit his £84,500-a-year role as deputy speaker of the Lords and chairman of the Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee in the wake of the scandal - but had refused to leave the Lords completely until today.
Lord Sewel's humiliated wife Lady Jennifer made it known to MailOnline yesterday that he was 'not expected' to return to their marital home in Aberdeenshire. Three days after his sex and cocaine shame was revealed, the disgraced peer has written to Parliament to resign his peerage after accepting 'his continued membership would damage and undermine public confidence in the Lords.'
Lord Hill, a former leader of House of Lords, said Lord Sewel's position had become untenable.
The Tory peer, who is now Britain's EU Commissioner, said: 'If you are for the setting of standards, you have to make sure you deliver on that. I think he did the right thing. Better late than never.'
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