Raminder Singh Ranger, Baron Ranger (born 3 July 1947), is a British-Indian businessman and politician. He is the founder of Sun Mark, a multinational consumer-goods company, and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2019.
The Lord Ranger | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2019 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 11 October 2019 Life peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Raminder Singh Ranger 3 July 1947 Gujranwala, British India |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations | Non-affiliated (2023–2024) |
| Spouse | Renu Ranger |
| Children | 3, including Reena |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Born in Gujranwala, Punjab, just before the partition of India, Ranger was raised by his widowed mother in Patiala. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1971, and founded the shipping company Sea, Air and Land Forwarding in 1987, followed by Sun Mark in 1995. Ranger is a donor to the Conservative Party and served as a co-chairman of Conservative Friends of India. He was nominated for a life peerage in Theresa May's resignation honours.
In 2023, the House of Lords commissioner for standards found that Ranger bullied and harassed a journalist following a Diwali event in Parliament. After further revelations of derogatory comments about Pakistanis and Sikhs, Ranger's CBE appointment was revoked by the Honours Forfeiture Committee in 2024.
Early life and education
editRaminder Singh Ranger was born on 3 July 1947 in Gujranwala, then in the Punjab Province of British India, as the son of Sardar Nanak Singh and Harbans Kaur.[1][2] His father, an opponent of the planned partition of India, was assassinated about four months before Ranger was born.[2][3] Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Patiala in Indian Punjab as refugees of the partition, and Ranger was raised with seven siblings by his widowed mother.[4]
Ranger attended Mohindra College in Patiala, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from the Government College in Chandigarh.[4][5] He travelled to London to study law in 1971, but discontinued his studies because of a lack of funds.[4]
Business career
editRanger took up odd jobs after migrating to the United Kingdom, including working as a KFC chef in Norbury, south London, before being promoted to district manager. He subsequently operated a Post Office branch and newsagent's shop, and worked at Currys. In 1987, Ranger founded Sea, Air and Land Forwarding, a freight and logistics company, with £2 of capital and a typewriter.[1][6] He founded Sun Mark, a fast-moving consumer goods export company, in 1995.[1][4] Under Ranger's chairmanship, Sea, Air and Land Forwarding won a Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1999,[3][7] and Sun Mark won Queen's Awards for Enterprise in international trade from 2009 to 2013, becoming the first company to win the award in five consecutive years.[8]
Political career
editRanger is a major donor to the Conservative Party. Through Sun Mark, he donated £25,000 to Theresa May's party leadership campaign in 2016.[9] He gave £1.5 million in total to the Conservative Party from 2009 to 2024.[10]
In 2018, alongside MP Zac Goldsmith, Ranger was appointed a co-chairman of Conservative Friends of India, linking the party with the British-Indian community and supporting stronger India–United Kingdom relations.[11] Ranger is a founding member of the Pakistan, India and UK Friendship Forum, the Hindu Forum of Britain, and the British Sikh Association.[12]
May nominated Ranger for a life peerage in her resignation honours list. He was created Baron Ranger, of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, on 11 October 2019,[13] and was introduced to the House of Lords on 29 October.[14] He made his maiden speech in an International Women's Day debate in March 2020.[15]
After a series of controversies, the Conservatives withdrew the party whip from Ranger in September 2023, but did not disclose this to parliamentary authorities until a year later. The whip was restored to him in November 2024.[16][17]
Controversies
editIn 2020, an employment tribunal at Watford ruled that, in a 2018 phone call, Ranger victimised, harassed and discriminated against a female employee who complained about workplace harassment, contrary to the Equality Act 2010. His words were found to have had the effect of "violating the claimant's dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment for her".[18][19] On appeal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the findings of harassment and discrimination against Ranger but allowed the claim of victimisation to be reheard; that claim was later withdrawn by the employee. Ranger won a subsequent legal case in which the employee's £673,000 compensation claim was struck out.[20]
In 2022, the House of Lords commissioner for standards initiated an investigation into Ranger following a complaint by Poonam Joshi, a female journalist who accused him of bullying and harassment. Joshi was investigating Ranger's alleged links to Nithyananda, a controversial Indian guru, a representative of whom was invited to a Diwali event hosted by Ranger at the Palace of Westminster in October 2022.[21] The commissioner's report, published in June 2023, found that Ranger bullied and harassed Joshi through a series of tweets and WhatsApp messages. He apologised to Joshi, and promised to undertake social-media training and re-attend a seminar on the parliamentary behaviour code, in lieu of being suspended from Parliament.[22][23][24]
Ranger wrote to BBC director-general Tim Davie in January 2023 to complain about the documentary series India: The Modi Question, which examined Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots; in his letter, he demanded to know whether the BBC's "Pakistani-origin staff were behind this nonsense".[25] He withdrew his comments after they were accused of being "racially charged".[26]
Honours
editRanger was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2005 Birthday Honours for services to business and the Asian community,[27] and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to business and community cohesion.[28] He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of West London in 2016,[29] the University of Wolverhampton in 2021,[30] and London South Bank University in 2022.[31]
Ranger's CBE appointment was revoked in December 2024 for "bringing the honours system into disrepute".[32][33] The Honours Forfeiture Committee was understood to have considered Ranger's bullying and harassment of Joshi, as well as derogatory comments about the Pakistani and Sikh communities, in deciding to strip Ranger of the honour.[16][10]
Personal life
editRanger and his wife Renu have three daughters.[1][2][34] His eldest daughter, Reena Ranger, is also a Conservative politician, and succeeded him as the co-chairman of Conservative Friends of India.[2] She is married to Harmeet "Sunny" Ahuja, who is the CEO of Sun Mark and the Ranger family businesses.[2][34]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Ranger". Who's Who. A & C Black. 2023. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U286474. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c d e "Lord Rami Ranger". Eastern Eye. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
- ^ a b "Dr Rami Ranger MBE – Sun Mark". The Business Magazine. 10 July 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ a b c d Sonwalkar, Prasun (10 September 2019). "Punjab-origin Rami Ranger moves from Partition rags to House of Lords". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "Indian man Rami Ranger nominated to the House of Lords". ANI. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ Torrance, Jack (8 July 2016). "Rami Ranger on turning £2 of capital into £200m of turnover". Management Today. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "No. 55463". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 April 1999. p. S2.
- ^ "Best of British business receive Queen's Awards for Enterprise". GOV.UK (Press release). 21 April 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ Doward, Jamie; Neate, Rupert (27 January 2018). "Presidents Club party guest backed Theresa May's Tory leader bid". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
- ^ a b Morton, Becky (6 December 2024). "Tory peer Lord Rami Ranger stripped of CBE". BBC News. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ Sonwalker, Prasun (27 June 2018). "Rami Ranger named co-chair of Conservative Friends of India". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "'Serious implications': Lord Rami Ranger slams UK committee over CBE revocation". Hindustan Times. 7 December 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "No. 62799". The London Gazette. 17 October 2019. p. 18632.
- ^ "Introduction: Lord Ranger". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 800. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. 29 October 2019. col. 861.
- ^ Lord Ranger (10 March 2020). "International Women's Day". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 802. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. col. 949–951.
- ^ a b Stacey, Kiran (6 December 2024). "Tory donor stripped of CBE weeks after party whip reinstated in House of Lords". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "Parliamentary career for Lord Ranger". MPs and Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ Rushton, Katherine; Young, Charles (13 April 2021). "Exclusive: Tory peer who championed equality 'victimised' female complainant". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
- ^ Pogrund, Gabriel (13 April 2021). "Lord Ranger called worker who feared abuse a 'silly girl'". The Times. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
- ^ Rushton, Katherine; Bird, Steve (15 February 2023). "Tory peer wins legal battle against former employee who accused him of 'victimisation'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ Stacey, Kiran (20 December 2022). "Lords inquiry launched into Tory peer accused of bullying female journalist". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Stacey, Kiran (13 June 2023). "Tory peer 'undermined and humiliated' journalist, finds Lords commissioner". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
- ^ Sawer, Patrick (13 June 2023). "Tory peer bullied, harassed and humiliated women's rights campaigner". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
- ^ "The conduct of Lord Ranger: Report from the Commissioner for Standards" (PDF). House of Lords. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
- ^ Allegretti, Aubrey; Stacey, Kiran (30 January 2023). "Tory peer accused of 'racially charged' attack on BBC Modi documentary". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Allegretti, Aubrey; Stacey, Kiran (31 January 2023). "Tory peer withdraws 'racially charged' comments". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
- ^ "No. 57665". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2005. p. 20.
- ^ "No. 61450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2015. p. N10.
- ^ "NRI Rami Ranger honoured with honorary doctorate". The Times of India. 24 July 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "Lord adds an honorary award to his enterprising accolades". University of Wolverhampton. 17 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
- ^ "Honorary Awards Ceremony". London South Bank University. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "No. 64589". The London Gazette. 9 December 2024. p. 24938.
- ^ "List of individuals who have forfeited their honour (since August 2023)". GOV.UK. 6 December 2024. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ a b "Entrepreneur and philanthropist Rami Ranger celebrates his 70th birthday with style". Asian Voice. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2024.