by Our News Desk

LORD SEWEL finally quit Parliament yesterday under increasing pressure over footage allegedly showing him snorting cocaine with two prostitutes.

The former Labour minister is the first peer to stand down in disgrace following new rules introduced last year allowing resignations from the upper house.

He apologised for the “pain and embarrassment” caused by the drugs and sex scandal, exposed in the Sun on Sunday.

The married 69-year-old had earlier quit his £84,500-a-year roles as deputy speaker of the Lords and chair of its privileges and conduct committee but had resisted calls to leave Westminster completely.

Met Police raided Lord Sewel’s home with a sniffer dog and battering ram on Monday night, leaving with several bags of evidence.

Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed Lord Sewel’s decision to “absent himself” but played down the prospect of further reform of the second chamber, saying there was “no point in trying that route again” after the failure of proposals under the coalition.

However Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has urged other party leaders to throw their weight behind a constitutional convention to consider reform to an undemocratic system which was “rotten to the core” and allowed peers to feel they were above the law.

Rotten house
Peers who hung onto their seats after scandals

The 3rd Lord Moynihan

Fled Britain to avoid arrest in 1970 and was later named at the Old Bailey as “the evil genius” behind a series of frauds.

Resurfaced in the Philippines, where he ran a brothel and married a belly-dancer.

He became an informer for the US drugs authorities and his evidence helped them convict Howard Marks, who branded him a “first-class bastard.”

Lord Kagan

Served 10 months in jail in 1980 for stealing from his own company, but returned to the Lords after his release to give speeches on prison reform.

Lord Lucan

Retained his right to sit in the House of Lords after disappearing in 1974 following the mysterious murder of his children’s nanny.

Lord Archer

Dreary novelist Jeffrey Archer remains a member of the House of Lords despite being sentenced to four years in prison in 2001 after being found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice in a previous libel case when he sued a newspaper over reports about money he gave to a prostitute.

Lord Hanningfield

The onetime Essex County Council leader kept his seat in the Lords despite being sentenced to nine months in jail over misclaimed parliamentary expenses in 2011. Later suspended from the Lords for a year after a disciplinary committee found he had made further inappropriate claims.