Peer hires lawyer amid sexual harassment claims

The sexual harassment scandal engulfing Britain’s Liberal Democrats has moved a step closer to the law courts after the peer at the centre of the claims instructed senior counsel to advise him.

A spokesman for Lord Rennard — the party’s former chief executive — said he had instructed a QC specialising in public law to advise him on the “lawfulness or otherwise” of the decision to launch a second inquiry into his conduct.

It follows the announcement that he was being suspended from the party pending the investigation into claims that he brought the Lib Dems into disrepute by his refusal to apologise to four women activists who alleged he sexually harassed them.