David Lea, Baron Lea of Crondall

David Edward Lea, Baron Lea of Crondall OBE (born 2 November 1937) in Tyldesley, Lancashire) is a British trade unionist and Labour politician. In January 2020, he was suspended from the Labour peers group.

Early life

Lord Lea was educated at Farnham Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied economics.

Trade union career

He joined the TUC in 1964 as a research officer, became Head of the Economic Department, then Assistant General Secretary from 1978 until 1999,[1] when he joined the House of Lords.

Whilst at the TUC, he was secretary of the TUC-Labour Party Liaison Committee from 1972 to 1994, a member of the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth from 1974 until 1979, the Delors Committee on Economic and Social Concepts in the Community 1977 to 1979, the Kreisky Commission on Unemployment in Europe 1986–89, a member of the Working Party on Economic and Social Concepts in the EEC[2] and a Vice President of the European TUC.

House of Lords

Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1978 New Year Honours,[3] Lea was made a Labour Life peer taking the title Baron Lea of Crondall, of Crondall in the County of Hampshire on 20 July 1999.[4][5]

Lord Lea made headlines in April 2013 when he publicly claimed that fellow peer and former MI6 officer Daphne Park admitted to him shortly before her death that the MI6 had had a role in the 1961 abduction and murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.[6]

On the 14 January 2020, the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards published a report detailing a number of complaints regarding Lord Lea's behaviour.[7] The behaviour, described as "stalkerish" by one of the complainants, was deemed to amount to harassment based on age and sex in the eyes of the commissioner. As a result of these findings Lord Lea was suspended from the Labour Peers Group.[8]

A further report on the behaviour of Lord Lea was published on the 10 August 2020.[9]

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-08-31. Retrieved 2010-02-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. http://www.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ead/292d0566.htm
  3. "No. 47418". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1977. p. 11.
  4. "No. 55564". The London Gazette. 27 July 1999. p. 8076.
  5. http://thepeerage.com/p19152.htm
  6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22006446.
  7. "The conduct of Lord Lea of Crondall" (PDF). parliament.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  8. "Labour peer Lord Lea suspended after being found guilty of harassing two women working in Parliament". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  9. "The conduct of Lord Lea of Crondall" (PDF). parliament.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
Trade union offices
Preceded by
Norman Willis		 Assistant General Secretary of the TUC
1978–1999
With: Kenneth Graham (1978–1984)
Roy Jackson (1984–1992)		 Succeeded by
Post vacant
Next incumbent: Kay Carberry
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by
The Lord Elder		 Gentlemen
Baron Lea of Crondall 		Followed by
The Lord Rennard
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