Former UUP MP Ken Maginnis has been accused of abusing security staff at Westminster.
The SNP's Hannah Bardell raised a point of order in the House of Commons chamber yesterday to highlight the issue.
She told speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle: "Yesterday on re-entering the building for the first time after Christmas I witnessed one of the worst cases of abuse of security staff that I have seen in my time here.
"One of the members of the other place [the House of Lords], who I will name so as not to incriminate anybody else – Lord Ken Maginnis – had forgotten his pass. Something we've all been guilty of.
"However, instead of taking the advice of the security staff, who as we all know are here for our security and our safety, he proceeded to verbally abuse and shout at both the member of staff – calling them 'crooked', saying 'did they not know who he was, he'd been here 46 years' – and refusing to take the advice and assistance of both myself, the security staff and the police that then attended.
"I have reported this incident to the authorities but I seek your advice as the member is not elected, so I'm interested to know to whom he is accountable and what can be done to make sure no member of staff on the estate is ever treated in that way or abused in the manner which I and others witnessed yesterday."
Lord Maginnis was MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1983 until 2001. He resigned from the party in 2012 and sits in the House of Lords as an independent.
