Labour Party lifts Lord Ahmed’s suspension

LONDON: Labour Party lifted Lord Nazir Ahmed’s suspension on Friday and told him he was free to resume full rights conferred by Labour Party membership.
Lord Nazir Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim peer, told The News on Friday that Iain McNicol, Gen Secretary of the Labour Party, had told him in writing that the investigation into Lord Ahmed’s remarks in Pakistan had cleared him. A Labour Party spokesman told The News: “Lord Ahmed is no longer suspended from the Labour party.”
Lord Ahmed was suspended from the Labour Party amid reports that he offered a £10 million bounty for the capture of President Barack Obama and his predecessor President George W Bush. He was reported to have made the comments at a conference in Haripur in Pakistan in which he criticised the US for wars in Muslim countries but spoke out in particularly against the US bounty of $10 million on Hafiz Saeed, founder of the militant group Lashkar-e-Tayaaba.
Lord Ahmed thanked the Chief Whip Lord Bassam for “conducting a fair investigation into the allegations” made by an English language Pakistani newspaper.Lord Nazir confirmed he has instructed his lawyers Neumans LLP to take legal action against “all those who have fabricated these allegations“. He said: “I am delighted that I have been vindicated of a gross miss-reporting of a recent speech and I am pleased to be back in the Party as a full member and will continue to play a full and active part within the Labour Party.”