Northern Ireland

Lord Kilclooney to escape watchdog censure over Kamala Harris 'Indian' tweet

Cross-bench peer Lord Kilclooney
Cross-bench peer Lord Kilclooney Cross-bench peer Lord Kilclooney

THE House of Lords standards watchdog has confirmed that former Stormont minister Lord Kilclooney won't be censured over a tweet in which he referred to US vice-president elect Kamala Harris as an "Indian".

The 82-year-old former MEP denied his social media post, which has since been deleted, was racist.

The Lords' Commissioner for Standards Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said after conducting a preliminary assessment of the "many complaints" received to determine whether the cross-bench life peer’s conduct on Twitter fell within the scope of the Lords' code of conduct, she concluded the social media post was outside her investigative remit.

She said even though Lord Kilclooney includes his title in his Twitter handle, his conduct on social media "does not necessarily constitute a parliamentary activity".

Ms Scott-Moncrieff said the comments on Twitter "do not include a parliamentary dimension".

"Therefore, in this instance, Lord Kilclooney’s conduct on Twitter does not fall within the scope of the code and it is outside my power to investigate," she said.

It is understood the peer has not apologised for his tweet despite being urged to by speaker of the House of Lords Norman Fowler.

The response from the commissioner for standards is similar to the outcome of previous complaints against the former Ulster Unionist, who in 2017 described the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as an "Indian" in a tweet.

Earlier this week, Belfast councillor Séamas de Faoite, who previously complained about Lord Kilclooney's tweets, described the Lords' standards watchdog as "toothless".