John Buttifant Sewel, Baron Sewel, (; born 15 January 1946), is a British politician,

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

, and former academic. He served as Chairman of Committees of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, its deputy speaker. He is also a former senior vice principal of the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

and a former parliamentary under-secretary of state. He was made a Labour minister in the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...

department of the Blair Government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland in 1997, where he assisted Donald Dewar in steering through the

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

that led to the creation of the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

. His name is given to the Sewel motion, parliamentary device passed by the Scottish Parliament, in which it agrees that the United Kingdom parliament may pass legislation on a devolved issue extending to Scotland, over which the Scottish Parliament has regular legislative authority. He left ministerial office in 1999 upon the new Parliament taking over the majority of the

's functions. Sewel left the House of Lords in 2015 after photos of him doing drugs with prositutes emerged.

Early life

Sewel was born on 15 January 1946. He was educated at Hanson Boys' Grammar School and

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

(BA, 1967) before taking his MSc degree at University College of Wales, Swansea in 1970, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

in 1977.

Academic career

Sewel joined the

as a research fellow in the Department of Politics in 1969. During the next three decades he worked in the Departments of Education and Political Economy and also the Regional Centre for the Study of Economic and Social Policy, where he was appointed to his chair. In 1988 he became the dean of the then Faculty of Economic & Social Sciences. Subsequently, in 1995, he was appointed vice-principal and dean of the faculty of Social Sciences & Law. Sewel returned to the University of Aberdeen to resume his role as vice-principal in 1999 and was subsequently senior vice-principal from 2001 to 2004.

Political career

Sewel was first elected to political office as an Aberdeen District Councillor in 1974, serving as council leader from 1977 to 1980, and also as president of the

Convention of Scottish Local Authorities The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) is the national association of Scottish councils and acts as an employers' association for its 32 member authorities. History Formed in 1975, COSLA exists to promote and protect the int ...

from 1982 to 1984. Sewel was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 1984 New Year Honours. Later, he was an influential member of the

Scottish Constitutional Convention The Scottish Constitutional Convention (SCC) was an association of Scottish political parties, churches and other civic groups, that developed a framework for Scottish devolution. History Campaign for a Scottish Assembly The Conventi ...

from 1994 to 1995. On 10 January 1996 he was created Baron Sewel, of Gilcomstoun in the District of the City of Aberdeen, and became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the

from 1997 to 1999, serving as the Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries. As such he piloted the

Scotland Act 1998 The Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legislated for the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament with tax varying powers and the Scottish Government (then Scottish Executive). It was o ...

through Parliament and helped draft the plans for the new Scottish Parliament. At the first election to the Parliament, Sewel was a candidate as third on the Labour Party list for North East Scotland, but was not elected. As an active member of the

, Sewel chaired the European Union Select Committee in Agriculture, the Environment and Fisheries and was a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. His interests include enlargement of the European Union and of NATO, constitutional change and rural development. Sewel was elected Chairman of Committees on 9 May 2012, whereupon he gave up the Labour

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and sat as a non-affiliated member in the House of Lords.

Scandal and resignation

He resigned as Chairman of Committees on 26 July 2015 after ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' released hidden camera footage seemingly showing him snorting white powder (widely reported in the media to be

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

) at a party with prostitutes. In the same video he described

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

as the "most superficial ndfacile Prime Minister there has ever been". On the following day he was granted a

leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they ar ...

from the Lords, and on 28 July 2015 he formally resigned from the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewel, John Sewel, Baron 1946 births Living people Labour Party (UK) life peers Academics of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of University College, Durham Alumni of Swansea University Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Place of birth missing (living people) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Life peers created by Elizabeth II Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014