Gujranwala-born Lord Ranger was given award in 2016 for his services to business, community cohesion
\n LONDON
\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer is being sued by a Pakistan-born Sikh Tory peer after claiming the stripping of his CBE over social media posts constitutes a threat to free speech. Lord Ranger, 78, who was born in Gujranwala, was given the award in 2016 for his services to business and community cohesion.
\nHowever, the multi-millionaire businessman was stripped of the title following a series of tweets which were found to have breached the House of Lords\u2019 Code of Conduct and criticism of Sikh separatists.
\nHe claims to be the victim of \u201ccancel culture,\u201d arguing in his action against the Prime Minister that the revocation of his CBE was \u201cdisproportionate\u201d.
\nA notice in the London Gazette in December 2024, said \u201cthe King has directed that\u2026 [the CBE] shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order\u201d. Although he still retains his MBE, the loss of his CBE is thought to have left Lord Ranger deeply embarrassed and distressed.
\nThe first involved a House of Lords investigation into claims he harassed and bullied Indian journalist Poonam Joshi.
\nIn addition to the case against Joshi, Lord Ranger also apologised for online posts in which he criticised Sikh separatists \u2014 supporters of Khalistan \u2014 and made belittling comments about Pakistanis. It is thought that the Forfeiture Committee cancelled Lord Ranger\u2019s CBE for bringing the honours system into disrepute.
\nThe reason Starmer is the target of the legal action is that the Forfeiture Committee is overseen by the prime minister\u2019s Cabinet Office.
\nAt a hearing in the High Court of London, Conservative peer Lord Rami Ranger\u2019s lawyer told the judge that Ranger should be allowed to bring a legal challenge over the forfeiture of his CBE.
\nTom Hickman KC, for Lord Ranger, said the committee had \u201crelied on evidence, allegations and assumptions that were never put to the claimant\u201d.
\nHe also said the committee \u201cgave irrational reasons\u201d for its decision, did not follow its own guidance and \u201cviolated\u201d Lord Ranger\u2019s right to freedom of expression.
\nThe barrister went on to say that Lord Ranger became involved in a dispute over a \u201cseparatist, sectarian movement called Khalistanism,\u201d to which he is opposed. He made a number of comments in 2021 about this movement and about a group called Sikhs for Justice, which is running worldwide Khalistan Referendum.
\nIn 2023, he also published an open letter about a BBC documentary which Hickman said was \u201chighly critical\u201d of the Modi government in India, as a result of Lord Ranger\u2019s \u201cconcerns about its accuracy and purpose\u201d.
\nChristopher Knight KC, for the Cabinet Office, told the High Court hearing: \u201cThe committee considered, and the prime minister agreed, that the claimant\u2019s behaviour brought the honours system into disrepute\u201d.
\nHe urged the court to dismiss Lord Ranger\u2019s claim, saying that it was not viable to contest the forfeiture decision because it was a \u201cmoral, ethical and political\u201d one and not one that was \u201cobjective\u201d.
\nThe barrister said: \u201cA challenge to the exercise of the honours prerogative, whether to grant or remove, involves a subject matter inherently unsuitable for determination by a court applying rules of law\u201d.
\n\u201cForfeiture in particular would involve the court policing subjective and wide considerations of a moral, ethical, and political nature and would involve the court in matters beyond its proper constitutional function.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gujranwala-born Lord Ranger was given award in 2016 for his services to business, community cohesion LONDON Prime Minister Keir Starmer is being sued by a Pakistan-born Sikh Tory peer after claiming the stripping of his CBE over social media posts constitutes a threat to free speech. Lord Ranger, 78, who was born in Gujranwala, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n