Overview
- Rennard has had the Liberal Democrat whip in the House of Lords and his party membership suspended while the fresh inquiry proceeds.
- Party leader Sir Ed Davey says Rennard should not sit in the House of Lords and backs making it easier to expel peers for serious misconduct.
- Three of the four original complainants—Alison Smith, Bridget Harris and Alison Goldsworthy—welcomed the move as a long-awaited step toward accountability.
- Rennard denies wrongdoing and cites the 2013 Metropolitan Police inquiry and subsequent legal reviews that resulted in no charges or disciplinary hearing.
- A 2013 review by Alistair Webster KC judged the case unlikely to meet the criminal threshold but reported “broadly credible” evidence of behaviour violating the complainants’ personal space, a characterization Rennard disputes.