Former lord speaker Frances D’Souza is facing suspension from the Lords after writing to the Metropolitan police commissioner to try to “influence a police investigation into alleged speeding offences”.
Lady D’Souza wrote to Mark Rowley saying she feared she would have to give up attending parliament if she were banned from driving for exceeding the limit in a 20mph zone.
The Met police said it had considered launching a criminal investigation into the apparent attempt to influence the commissioner but decided against it. It then passed the letter to the House of Lords conduct committee to investigate whether it breached the code of conduct.
D’Souza did not dispute the case but appealed against the sanction – a recommended eight-week ban from the Lords for seeking “to influence a live police investigation”.
The letter from D’Souza – on headed House of Lords notepaper – acknowledged it was a “trivial matter” for the Met but said she lived “deep in the countryside with no local bus services and unsuitable train schedules”.
She asked if a ban was a “fair response for exceeding the speed limit while we are all still learning what a 20 mile speed actually feels like?”
D’Souza also questioned “if my speedometer or your radar is entirely accurate in recording 21 miles instead of 20?”
The report from the conduct committee said D’Souza acknowledged that her letter was “inappropriate”, adding that “with the benefit of hindsight, I deeply regret it” but described the recommended sanction as “unduly severe”.
She told the committee that she had been advised by a fellow peer, a former Met commissioner, to write to the relevant chief of the police force and that she had previously met Rowley through the Westminster Abbey institute.
The committee found D’Souza “took advantage of her privileged position as a member of the house to exert improper influence upon an investigation. No one who is not a parliamentarian would have possessed such an advantage.”
D’Souza was subsequently charged and summoned to appear before a magistrates court for the speeding offences.
She has been contacted for comment.
