Lord Sewel has this evening resigned as a peer in the House of Lords after footage emerged of him allegedly taking cocaine with two prostitutes.
The disgraced Deputy Speaker contacted the Clerk of the Parliaments indicating his intention to terminate his membership of the House of Lords with immediate effect.
The former Labour minister has bowed to intense pressure to resign from Parliament following the drugs and sex scandal, exposed in the Sun newspaper.
In a statement, Lord Sewel said: "I have today written to the Clerk of the Parliaments terminating my membership of the House of Lords. The question of whether my behaviour breached the Code of Conduct is important, but essentially technical.
"The bigger questions are whether my behaviour is compatible with membership of the House of Lords and whether my continued membership would damage and undermine public confidence in the House of Lords. I believe the answer to both these questions means that I can best serve the House by leaving it.
