Tory Peer And Donor Forfeits CBE After Probe Ruled He 'Humiliated' A Journalist

Conservative peer and donor Rami Ranger has forfeited his CBE after he was found to have bullied and harassed a female journalist.

The Lords Standards Commissioner ruled last June that Ranger targeted Poonam Joshi with messages and tweets after the freelancer journalist criticised him and his business.

The Conservative Party withdrew the whip as a result of the probe but reinstated it in November.

HuffPost UK understands Parliament’s Forfeiture Committee also considered posts and comments by the peer which it believes constituted attacks on the Sikh community and the Pakistani community.

Ranger, who was ennobled in 2019 in Theresa May’s resignation peerage list, was awarded a CBE in 2016 in the New Year Honours List for services to business and community cohesion.

Joshi had criticised the peer’s consumer goods company, the Hindu Forum of Britain, had called Ranger a “disgrace” and said his £1.5m donations to the Tories amounted to ”#CashForHonours”.

Ranger told Joshi: “You have a big mouth. Now shut it.”

In another message, he told her: “You have become the epitome of filth and garbage reflecting your upbringing and showing what masterpiece your parents have given to society, a twisted personality.”

Ranger later apologised after the Lords Standards Commission’s found the messages constituted bullying and harassment.

However, the Forfeiture Committee decided more than a year later that this behaviour, alongside the reason he was awarded a CBE, means he should be give up the honour. 

According to a notice in the London Gazette on Friday and see by PA news agency, the peer’s CBE would be “cancelled and annulled”.

In a ruling last year, the Lords Standards Commissioner said: “There was an imbalance of power between Lord Ranger and Ms Joshi by reason of Lord Ranger’s authority, his public position as a member of the House of Lords, his wealth and his social standing, and his connections and associations with other senior political figures.

“He was acutely aware of this imbalance of power and abused it by persistently undermining, humiliating and denigrating Ms Joshi.”

“There is a clear pattern of behaviour involving the use of language that belittles and undermines Ms Joshi,” the commissioner added – although it advised Joshi to apologise too.

Ranger responded to the report at the time by apologising to the journalist, admitting his behaviour “fell short of the high standards I expect of myself,” and saying he had “expressed my remorse”.

Similarly, Joshi said she was “remorseful” and accepted she bears a “share of the responsibility for the circumstances which have arisen and I apologise to Lord Ranger”.