Pakistan-born Sikh peer sues PM Keir Starmer

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 given the award in 2016 for his services to business and community cohesion.

However, the multi-millionaire businessman was stripped of the title following a series of tweets which were found to have breached the House of Lords' Code of Conduct and criticism of Sikh separatists.

He claims to be the victim of "cancel culture," arguing in his action against the Prime Minister that the revocation of his CBE was "disproportionate".

A notice in the London Gazette in December 2024, said "the King has directed that… [the CBE] shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order".

Although he still retains his MBE, the loss of his CBE is thought to have left Lord Ranger deeply embarrassed and distressed.

The first involved a House of Lords investigation into claims he harassed and bullied Indian journalist Poonam Joshi.

In addition to the case against Joshi, Lord Ranger also apologised for online posts in which he criticised Sikh separatists — supporters of Khalistan — and made belittling comments about Pakistanis. It is thought that the Forfeiture Committee cancelled Lord Ranger’s CBE for bringing the honours system into disrepute.

The reason Starmer is the target of the legal action is that the Forfeiture Committee is overseen by the prime minister’s Cabinet Office.

At a hearing in the High Court of London, Conservative peer Lord Rami Ranger's lawyer told the judge that Ranger should be allowed to bring a legal challenge over the forfeiture of his CBE.

Tom Hickman KC, for Lord Ranger, said the committee had "relied on evidence, allegations and assumptions that were never put to the claimant".

He also said the committee "gave irrational reasons" for its decision, did not follow its own guidance and "violated" Lord Ranger’s right to freedom of expression.

The barrister went on to say that Lord Ranger became involved in a dispute over a "separatist, sectarian movement called Khalistanism," 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.

In 2023, he also published an open letter about a BBC documentary which Hickman said was "highly critical" of the Modi government in India, as a result of Lord Ranger's "concerns about its accuracy and purpose".

Christopher Knight KC, for the Cabinet Office, told the High Court hearing: "The committee considered, and the prime minister agreed, that the claimant’s behaviour brought the honours system into disrepute".

He urged the court to dismiss Lord Ranger's claim, saying that it was not viable to contest the forfeiture decision because it was a "moral, ethical and political" one and not one that was "objective".

The barrister said: "A 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".

"Forfeiture 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."