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A Tory peer wants a clampdown on mooning after schoolkids exposed their backsides to him and his wife from a coach.

Lord James of Blackheath said his horrified wife - who is a youth justice officer - wanted boys who mooned at passers-by locked up for a year.

Businessman Lord James, 75, said the incident happened on the roads leading to Twickenham as they travelled to watch England play rugby union.

He said he had been involved in "endless attempts" to convince his wife that rugby was "a respectable pastime and not the equivalent of being found in bed with a supermodel on a Saturday afternoon".

He said he had persuaded his wife to accompany him to Twickenham for each of the last three Saturdays to watch England's Autumn Internationals.

"She was totally horrified by the sight of the school buses coming down the road to Twickenham filled full of children who were indulging in a pastime I believe is called mooning," he said.

"I am not going to explain it to your lordships as we are in mixed company.

"The sight of some 40 school children mooning simultaneously is not a pretty sight. She was horrified.

"My wife is a youth justice officer and she watched as the police motorbikes went zooming past these kids giving them a friendly wave as they went and she said: 'We have a law against this sort of thing.

"'Why aren't they being brought into court? I would put them away for a year if I got them'."

He made his comments during committee stage of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill as peers discussed a move by Tory Lord Marlesford to bring in a civil penalty for littering from vehicles.

Home Office minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach joked that Lord James had "sought to get to the bottom of several issues" but did not comment further on his remarks.