Here's a really serious question for a change ...

Name all the MP's who (whilst serving members /or at some sooner time
/or at some later time) have disgraced themselves in the eyes of: (a)
their Party Leaders (b) the 'House' generally or (c) the Electorate at
large.

Some names/groups spring readily to mind:

Oswald Mosley's 'New Party' faction in 1931.

John Beckett, who famously 'grabbed the Mace', and later joined
Mosley's British Union of Fascists.

Noel Pemberton Billing who was carried out of the House during WW1.

John Thomas who leaked Budget 'secrets' to his friends 'in the City'
in the 1930's.

John Profumo, he of the Christine Keeler Affair.

John Stonehouse, who faked his own death.

Wilfrid Vernon who was convicted under the Official Secrets Act in the
1930's but later resurfaced as a Labour MP.

Tom Driberg, former Chairman of the Labour Party, who later turned out
to have been a Russian spy,

Captain Archibald Ramsay who was interned for most of WW2.

Surely, there must be others.

But can anybody find 'em?

If anyone can, Pinky can!

(I choose Pinky because it fits rather neatly and she is certainly a
good judge of Virtual Vintage Chardonnay.)

Dear Bryan, 

Oh, what a short memory you have! Of course there were more. Many more
– British politicians seem to have a flair for scandals. So many more
that I think I have probably left out some.
Let’s begin with Sir Francis Bacon. “In 1621 Bacon was found guilty of
accepting bribes and was fined and imprisoned in the Tower of London
for a few days. He was banished to his estate of Gorhambury near St.
Albans, and even though the King pardened him after three months, he
was not allowed to return to the London courts or parliament.
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/stafflag/francisbacon1561.html
“In December 1825, the City suffered a devastating crash and a young
Benjamin Disraeli was ruined.
The future prime minister owed thousands of pounds in debt and spent
the next few decades avoiding those he owed money to.
As a result, Mr Disraeli wrote Vivian Grey, an anonymous novel which
so closely parodied his friends and associates it resulted in several
threats of duels.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm)

“Parnell's ruin 
On December 24 1889, Captain O'Shea filed for divorce from his wife
Kitty.
Kitty O'Shea had for many years been the lover of Charles Stewart
Parnell, the Irish nationalist hero.
The most conspicuous figure in Irish politics, Mr Parnell had met
Kitty O'Shea in 1880.
Two daughters, believed to be Mr Parnell's, were born in 1883 and
1884.
Mr Parnell had been a pivotal figure in both Irish and British
politics up until the divorce, but on gaining the woman he loved he
lost his political reputation.
There were calls for Mr Parnell to resign and in December 1890 45
members of the Irish parliamentary party left him to begin their own
party with a new leader”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm)

In 1941, Bob Boothby Conservative. Aberdeenshire, East, had to resign
from the Ministry of Food over the Czech assets affair. Also caught
with men.

“December 1958 saw the end of Tory minister Ian Harvey's political
career.
The MP for Harrow East and a foreign office minister was caught in
bushes with a Coldstream Guardsman in St James's Park a month earlier
after a policeman and park keeper heard rustling noises.
On the way to the police station, Mr Harvey even tried to make a run
for it, but was recaptured and on arrival, he attempted to give a
false name.
Both were charged with gross indecency and breaching the park's
regulations.
When the pair appeared in court on 10 December, the gross indecency
charge was dropped and both were fined £5.
After Mr Harvey resigned he was excluded by the party and became a
social outcast from his society clubs.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm

On Tom Driberg, The Pink Paper, 7th. November, 1997, issue 506, page
15, wrote: "Labour MP with a penchant for cottaging, rent boys and
spying (on his own party for MI5), who managed to escape exposure on
all counts. The policemen used to escort him from the loos of the
Albert Embankment if there was an important vote going on in
Parliament." http://www.sbu.ac.uk/stafflag/tomdriberg.html

1962 - In 1962 another Conservative MP, Sir Ian Horobin, resigned
after being convicted of indecencies with boys.
http://entertainment.nzoom.com/entertainment_detail/0,1846,135991-129-130,00.html

1969-70   Will Owen, MP for Morpeth from 1954 until 1970. When the
Czech intelligence officer Joseph Frolik defected to America in 1969,
he named a number of Labour MPs and trade union officials as recruited
by Czech intelligence. The four MPs generally accepted to have been
named by Frolik were Will Owen, John Stonehouse, Barnett Stross and
Tom Driberg (the latter may have been a double agent). On
investigation Owen was found to have been taking money from Czech
intelligence since the late 1950s, though he was known as "Greedy
bastard" by the Czechs for the paucity of information provided. He was
acquitted of espionage after it was accepted that the information he
passed was not secret.
http://www.australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml:

1972 Reginald Maudling went in over pay-offs from John Poulson; 

1973 Lord Lambton, MP for Northumberland, Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1951
until 1973 and Under-Secretary for the Air Force from 1970 until 1973
was forced to resign because of the revalations of Norma Levy. Mrs.
Levy's husband,
Colin Levy, attempted to sell compromising information to the press.
http://www.australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml: 

1973   2nd Earl Jellicoe, Leader of the House of Lords from 1970 until
1973. Having resigned over rumours of affairs with "call-girls" the
day after Lambton
resigned, a Security Commission report found that there was no
connection
between the cases.
http://www.australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml: 

1974 - Maureen Colquhoun, Britain's first openly lesbian MP, punched a
car park attendant in a row about a parking ticket in December 1974.
After years of notoriety in the house, she was deselected in 1977,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm

1975  John Stonehouse. He had faked his own disappearance, or death
from drowning, in Miami in November 1974. After retrieving an
alternate set of clothes and fake passport (under the name Joseph
Markham) he got on a flight for Australia. On 24th December 1974 he
was arrested in Melbourne, police mistaking him for the missing Earl
who had disappeared almost simultaneously.
http://www.australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml: 



1976: Young Liberal leader cleared of robbery
The president of the Young Liberals, Peter Hain, has been acquitted of
stealing £490 from a branch of Barclays bank last October.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/themes/politics_and_protest_uk/politicians/default.stm

1978 - A Great Dane named Rinka was shot dead in a lay-by off the A 39
where it runs up Porlock Hill and across Exmoor. ; MP Jeremy Thorpe
has been accused in court of plotting to kill his former homosexual
lover and dispose of the body
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_2550000/2550945.stm

1982  Sir Nicholas Fairbairn MP (C, Tayside, Perth and Kinross),
Solicitor General for Scotland from 1979 until 1982. His mistress,
Pamela Milne, attempted suicide in December 1981 in Fairbairn's London
home. Fairbairn retreated to his scottish home, Fordell Castle, and
avoided the press. However, asked about a Glasgow rape case in January
1982, he told the press of the reason not to prosecute before
informing parliament and was forced to resign.
http://www.australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml: 


1983 - On New Year's Eve 1983 Flora Keays was born, the daughter of
now Lord Cecil Parkinson and his then secretary Sara Keays.
Cecil Parkinson had enjoyed a speedy rise through the party but during
the annual conference that came to a standstill following the
announcement that his secretary of 12 years was carrying his child.
Three weeks prior to the Blackpool conference, the father to be had
resigned as party chairman after guiding Mrs Thatcher's Conservative
party to a second victory.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm

1986: Labour expels Militant Hatton
Derek Hatton, the controversial deputy leader of Liverpool Council,
has been thrown out of the Labour Party for belonging to the leftwing
Militant faction.
Mr Hatton, who refused to attend his disciplinary hearing in London,
condemned the move as "disgraceful and scandalous".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/themes/politics_and_protest_uk/politicians/default.stm
:

1986: Archer quits over paid prostitute allegations
Jeffrey Archer has quit his post as Deputy Chairman of the
Conservative party.
His resignation comes as a result of reports in a Sunday newspaper
alleging he tried to pay a prostitute to go abroad to avoid a scandal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/themes/politics_and_protest_uk/politicians/default.stm
:
1987: MP on gay sex charges Conservative MP Harvey Proctor has
appeared
in court charged with indecency
1991: Anti-poll tax MP jailed
Labour MP Terry Fields has been sentenced to 60 days in prison for
refusing to pay his poll tax.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/themes/politics_and_protest_uk/politicians/default.stm
:

1992: Mellor resigns after one scandal too many
David Mellor has resigned as heritage minister, blaming his departure
on a constant barrage of hostile stories in the tabloid press.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/themes/politics_and_protest_uk/politicians/default.stm


1992/3 - Michael Mates resigns over his connection with Asil Nadir in
September 1992

1993 - On Boxing Day 1993, the tabloids led with the news married
environment minister Tim Yeo had a six-month-old "love child" to
single mother and Tory councillor Julia Stent.
The News of the World ran the story during the quiet festive period
and after two weeks of headlines such as "Yeo Ho Ho", Mr Yeo resigned
from his position.
Mr Yeo was one in a string of scandal's which followed John Major's
"back to basics" campaign.
Some weeks later, newspapers printed the story that the MP had
fathered another child many years ago as a Cambridge student. The
daughter had been given up for adoption.
Mr Yeo was by no means the first casualty of "back to basics", or the
last.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm

1994: Police probe MP's suspicious death
Forensic scientists are investigating the "suspicious circumstances"
of the death of Conservative MP for Eastleigh Stephen Milligan.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/themes/politics_and_protest_uk/politicians/default.stm
:


1997 - shortly after new year 1997, Jerry Hayes, the MP for Harlow,
was the subject of The News of the World's "Tory MP two timed wife
with underage gay lover".
Mr Hayes claimed the relationship was purely platonic. 
Many believe the story broke because of another "family values"
campaign by John Major. But the story had been hatched over Christmas
with the MP's former lover Paul Stone and publicist Max Clifford.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_226000/226643.stm

1997: Home Secretary Jack Straw son arrested in drug probe

1999: Liar Aitken jailed for 18 months
Disgraced ex-cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken has been jailed for 18
months after he admitted lying during a failed libel action.

Last but least, I would like to comfort you on the behaviour of the
impostor: In 1970, James Robert Lambert added the christian name
Edward and the surname Heath so that his name appeared on the ballot
paper as "Edward James Robert Lambert Heath". He opposed British entry
into the Common Market and stood as a "Conservative and Consult the
People" candidate.http://www.australianpolitics.com/uk/quiz.shtml

 I hope this answered your question. In order to answer it, I used my
own knowledge and also searched the Web for :

parliament scandals mp
names of members

If you need any clarifications on my answer, please let me know. I'd
be
pleased to clarify my answer before you rate it.

Absolutely BRILLIANT. Many thanks.

And, of course, Robert Walpole spent some time in the Tower of London
for corruption.

Lloyd George, inter alia, was involved in the Marconi Affair and later
went on to build his pension scheme through the sale of honours.

And Ramsay McDonald accepted a Daimler & shares from a biscuit
manufacturer, shortly after becoming Britain's first Prime Minister in
1924.

This is going to be a very long list.

But you've done your bit, and it is much appreciated.

Regards

Bryan

I am flattered to have been named as someone who might be able to
answer this question, but apparently a surfeit of virtual Chardonnay
has given me a bad case of "hardening of the smarteries." I haven't
been able to unearth any interesting dirt regarding Members of
Parliament other than the MPs mentioned in the question.

I'd like to pass the baton to my fellow GARs. It just doesn't seem to
be the kind of fact-gathering that an Oklahoma gal is best at. ;-)

IH Bryan 
Lord Lambton  and  Horatio Bottomly Spring to mind, Lord Kagen of
Gannex plus any number of peers of the realm committing the " English
Offence".

On a nother note  try the music on this on, its great
http://www.mumbaipolice.com/ 
olmeK sdrageR

Many thanks, Simon (Kemlo)

There was also Lord Brockett who was jailed for an insurance scam.

And Jonathan Aitken, jailed for perjury.

And Lord Jeffrey Archer, also jailed.

Reggie Maudling (the Poulson affair)?
Peter Mandelson (a spin too far)??
the sleaze faction of the 90s, David Mellor, et al???
Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith (plain brown envelopes)????

and many many more, surely?!

To read2live
I hope you cannot be reached in England, Libel laws being what they
are. None of those you mentioned have been convicted in any court of
law.
Rgds. Kemlo

Reggie Maudling's dead ... so he's no trouble.

There was also Bob Boothby who was in the pockets of the Czechs and
the Krays. He was also rather partial to young men.

Also Neil Hamilton finished up and the wrong end of a lawsuit with
Mohammed Al Fayed.

And 'Nigel West' (the writer), otherwise Rupert Allason MP, was
recently in a spot of bother.

Great question, and some great comments.

Don't forget that Neil Hamilton wasn't the only MP suspended from the
Commons in the 'Cash for Questions' debacle.

My MP David Tredinnick, Conservative Member for Bosworth, was also
suspended yet stays in his seat to this day. Infuriating.

Read a list of shame from the Major era here:
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/202525.stm

Hi, Jumping Joe

Great link.

Many thanks

Bryan

Thanks very much for the tips and the ratings! 

Yes, I could actually list a long list of Chelsea fans caught in the
undies, and MPs involved in sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, or just plain
violence and corruption.

Long live democracy.

Having now read the answer it really makes me proud to be british, no, really.
Kemlo