Tory peer Lord Rami Ranger stripped of CBE

Conservative peer and donor Lord Rami Ranger has been stripped of his CBE.

The Forfeiture Committee, which recommends whether to remove someone’s honour, decided he had brought the honours system into disrepute after a report by the Lords standards watchdog found he bullied and harassed a journalist on social media.

It also considered social media posts made by Lord Ranger about the Sikh community, as well as comments in the media about Pakistanis, the BBC understands.

Lord Ranger was suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party following the Lords commissioner for standards report last year but he was readmitted in November.

A notice published in the London Gazette on Friday said the King had directed that Lord Ranger’s honour should be “cancelled and annulled”.

He was made a CBE in 2016 for services to business and community cohesion in 2016, before being made a peer in Theresa May’s resignation honours in 2019.

The businessman has donated around £1.5m to the Conservative Party since 2009.

Last year Lord Ranger apologised to Poonam Joshi, an Indian journalist based in the UK, after the Lords standards commissioner found he had abused his power by “persistently undermining, humiliating and denigrating” her in a series of posts on Twitter.

Honours can be removed on the advice of the Forfeiture Committee and with the approval of the King.

Reasons can include being found guilty of a criminal offence, behaviour which results in censure by a regulatory or a professional body, or any other behaviour that is deemed to bring the honours system into disrepute.

The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.