Lord Ranger sues Prime Minister over removal of CBE in free speech row

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

15 June 2026

The Conservative peer and businessman Lord Ranger is suing the Prime Minister after he was stripped of his CBE.

Lord Ranger is claiming that the sanction imposed on him for a series of comments made on social media poses a threat to free speech. He argues that he has become a victim of ‘cancel culture’ after the CBE he was awarded in 2016 for services to business and community cohesion was taken from him.

Lawyers representing Lord Ranger in his legal action against the Prime Minister are arguing that the removal of the CBE was "disproportionate" and will have a chilling effect on free speech and the ability of public figures to voice concerns on controversial topics.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ranger's lawyers said they believe the case will test the Government's legal right to "cancel" an individual rather than protect the right to free speech.

His solicitor, Mark Lewis, said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on the facts of the case whilst it is ongoing, but it is interesting to see what, if any, legal constraints there are to governments adopting cancel culture over freedom of speech."

The episode is reported to have distressed and embarrassed the 78-year-old peer, particularly after it was made public in the London Gazette in December 2024.

Anil Bhanot, a founding member of the Hindu Council, had his OBE removed at the same time — also in December 2024 — for comments he made on social media following the killing of Hindus by mobs of Islamists in Bangladesh.

The Free Speech Union believes that the stripping of Lord Ranger's honour over perfectly lawful comments he made online is beyond the pale. He retains his MBE.

The decision was made by the Forfeiture Committee, a shadowy body operating deep within Whitehall. Its ruling came in the wake of a finding by the House of Lords standards watchdog that Lord Ranger had harassed and bullied Indian journalist Poonam Joshi in a series of posts on X. He had also criticised Sikh separatists online and made negative comments about Pakistanis.

He subsequently apologised to Ms Joshi and committed to undertaking social media training.

Lord Ranger was found to have brought the House of Lords "into disrepute" — an accusation the FSU has encountered time and again across the more than 6,000 cases it has handled in its six-year history.

The FSU is no stranger to the Forfeiture Committee's work, having supported a number of individuals who have lost their honours. It is precisely this record that makes the FSU deeply wary of the Removal of the Peerages Bill introduced by this Government. Peers who do not share the worldview of the government of the day — or who challenge prevailing orthodoxies, such as by criticising mass uncontrolled migration — risk being put through a similarly humiliating ordeal.

In an article for The Spectator, FSU General Secretary Lord Young of Acton wrote: "I can tell you with complete confidence, however, that some of these unfortunates have been forced to surrender their honours, not because they've broken the law, but because they've said something perfectly lawful that the committee thinks is evidence of 'Islamophobia' or some other thoughtcrime. I know this because the FSU has gone to bat for some of those poor wretches. They're solemnly informed they've brought the honours system into disrepute and then are put through a year of misery as they wait to find out whether the proudest achievement of their lives is about to be thrown in the bin.

"At present, peers aren't at risk of losing their titles if they outrage respectable opinion because the remit of the Forfeiture Committee doesn't extend to the Lords. But they will be if this new bill goes through. Consequently, it's bound to have a chilling effect on free speech. People like me will be forced to think twice before challenging some progressive bromide and we won't be able to hide behind parliamentary privilege since the Lords' Code of Conduct applies to words spoken in debates."

Lord Young is alarmed by the decision to strip Lord Ranger of his honour. Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: "This shadowy committee, deep in the recesses of Whitehall, has become an enforcer of establishment orthodoxy, ruthlessly stripping people of their honours for expressing perfectly lawful views that it regards as beyond the pale.

"The reason this has such a chilling effect on free speech is that being denuded of an honour is far, far worse than not being given one in the first place. It's deeply humiliating, with your dishonour being broadcast in the gazette.

"If people knew that receiving an OBE or a CBE was accompanied by a muzzle, with the risk that if you stray outside the Overton window [the political mainstream] you could lose it, I doubt many people would accept them in the first place."

Read more in The Telegraph.