Lord Lester has resigned from the House of Lords after a prolonged battle over sexual harassment allegations.

The 82-year-old peer, who had told the JC that the allegations against him were “a huge shock”, was suspended from the Lib Dems this year over claims he told Jasvinder Sanghera, a prominent campaigner against forced marriage, he could help her get a peerage if she had sex with him.

He has called the allegation, which were alleged to have happened in 2006, "completely untrue".

But last month a report by the privileges and conduct committee upheld the complaint against him. It recommended that Lord Lester be expelled from the Lords – but this was later reduced to a suspension up until 2022.

Peers voted to block the recommended suspension, claiming the probe was flawed.

But on Wednesday, Lord Lester announced his resignation. A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “Lord Lester has made the right decision in retiring from the House of Lords.”

The party spokesman added: “The Liberal Democrats had supported the original report from the Privileges Committee that had recommended his suspension from the House.

The Committee ordered his ban for allegedly telling Ms Sanghera: “Sleep with me and I will make you a baroness”.

In its report, the committee said it received a complaint in November 2017 that Lord Lester "had sexually harassed the complainant, had offered her a corrupt inducement to have sexual relations with her, and had warned her of unspecified consequences if she did not accept his offer".

Lord Pannick QC, a friend of the prominent barrister who had for decades worked on gender and race relations, said it was a sad end to Lord Lester’s parliamentary career.

“The Human Rights Acts 1998 and many other legal reforms which made the law fairer and more humane are the result of the efforts and skill of Lord Lester QC,” he said.

Lord Lester said he was resigning “with immediate effect”.

He added: “I do not have the strength or health to continue. I am sorry this issue has caused so much upset to everyone involved. I have always said allegations of this kind should be properly investigated.”

Lord Lester told the JC last month that he had had no memory of Ms Sanghera staying at his house, although his wife did.

He had had no contact with her for the past 12 years, he said, and her accusations had come as “a huge shock”.

He said: “I have no idea why she has made these allegations against me, and all these months later [since the inquiries began against him] I still have no idea, I wish I knew.”