Fraught with Ranger
Man in the Eye , Issue 1647

CONSERVATIVE party documents leaked to the Eye show two internal panels ruled in 2023 and early 2024 that Lord (Rami) Ranger should be expelled from the party for bringing it into disrepute (er, weren't its MPs doing a good job of that already? Ed.)

The expulsion orders make the decision to restore his Tory whip in the Lords last November look even more questionable.

Ranger, a British-Indian businessman behind the Sun Mark consumer goods distribution firm, has given the Tories £1.5m since 2009, and Theresa May gave him a peerage in her 2019 resignation honours.

In January 2023 he caused a scandal after a Panorama documentary critical of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, writing to the BBC director-general to ask him: "Kindly confirm if your Pakistani-origin staff were behind this nonsense." He made worse derogatory remarks about Pakistanis on Indian TV when interviewed about the row.

The Conservatives quietly removed the whip from Ranger in September 2023, without making it public until 2024.

Panel beating
The Eye can now reveal that in July 2023 a Tory panel actually ruled that Ranger should be expelled. A panel of the party disciplinary sub-committee whose members have extensive legal and political experience made the decision "unanimously", and not just because of his remarks about Pakistanis.

A strong contributory factor was the panel's conclusion that Ranger was disrespectful to party staff in the investigation. They felt his communications could even be called bullying.

Ranger appealed against his expulsion to another panel of senior party members in January 2024. He accepted he could have "communicated" with the investigation in a "more polite and better way", offering a "full and unreserved apology". The panel dismissed his appeal, and the Eye understands his expulsion was finalised later in 2024.

A matter of honour
It's not just the Tory party that has taken action against Ranger. In 2023 the Lords standards commissioner told him to apologise to a journalist after she complained about his "bullying" behaviour. And last December the Cabinet Office's honours forfeiture committee took away the CBE given to him in 2016 – a rare occurrence.

The committee doesn't explain the reasoning behind removal of honours, but it is understood it considered both the bullying charge and his remarks about Pakistanis.

The Eye asked the Conservatives about Lord Ranger's expulsion and whether he had been re-admitted to the party, and approached Ranger via his company, Sun Mark. Neither responded.

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SEASONING OPERATORS
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RODEN TRIP
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TUGENDHAT-IT-AGAIN?
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CALLED TO ORDURE
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HOUSING NEWS
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