Jerry Hayes
Encyclopedia
Jeremy Joseph James Hayes, known as Jerry Hayes, (born 20 April 1953) is a British former Conservative
politician, the MP
for Harlow
in Essex
from 1983 until 1997. He subsequently returned to practising criminal law.
for Harlow
in Essex
from 1983. He served on the Health and Heritage Select Committees and was a Parliamentary Private Secretary
in the Northern Ireland Office
and the Department of Environment
. He introduced a number of Acts including the Sexual Offences Act, the Nurse Prescribing Act and the Video Recordings Act. Hayes lost his seat in 1997 to the Labour Party
in the 1997 general election
.
said of Hayes that "he would look very pretty as a French maid; I wish I had his curls". Margaret Thatcher
has a personal dislike of his beard and yellow ties, which he refused to change, when asked. Hayes was a regular contributor on television quiz show
s and talk shows, in particular, The James Whale Show. For over four years he regularly appeared with Charles Kennedy
, Ken Livingstone
and Michael Parkinson
on a political discussion show on LBC in London. Hayes appeared on comedy show Have I Got News For You
in 1992, on which he was unafraid to ridicule his own party and it was revealed that he is Ken Livingstone
's "favourite Tory", which Hayes compared to being "Ian Paisley
's favourite Catholic". Hayes was frequently described as a "political buffoon", because of his willingness to subject himself to ridicule on various television and radio appearances. This included being fastened in the stocks and pelted with custard pies, and to be whipped while dressed in fetish clothing.
When the heavy metal group Iron Maiden
were having trouble getting permission to play in Beirut
, Hayes threw his weight behind them (one member was a constituent). "I have advised [the Foreign Office] the group is not a bad influence," he said. "In fact they are very good: I have all their albums."
. In 2006, a bomb was found near his house in the village of Wendens Ambo
, near Saffron Walden
in Essex. In May 2010, Hayes started a political blog for the website "Think Politics", which also hosts blogs by former Liberal Democrat
MP for Falmouth Camborne, Julia Goldsworthy
, current Labour
MP for Denton and Reddish, Andrew Gwynne
, and Conservative candidate for Swansea West
, René Kinzett. His blog has now moved to Total Politics.
in 1977. Hayes has practised as lead defence counsel in high-profile cases, including R v McGing and R v Tishane Bernard. McGing was a soldier in Basra accused of drowning a teenager whilst on patrol. He was acquitted. Tishane Bernard was accused of a gangland execution, he was also acquitted. Hayes also represented two Labour councillors accused of postal Ballot fraud in Birmingham, leading to the first election court
in one hundred years. He was instrumental in setting up Ten17 radio with Tony Saxby and Russ Lewell in 1991. He acted as lawyer to John Hemming
in his 2005 legal bid to challenge postal votes at the 2005 general election
and has also defended celebrities and a British soldier in Iraq
. Hayes works at Argent Chambers.
. The newspaper ran with the headline "TORY MP 2-TIMED WIFE WITH UNDER-AGE GAY LOVER", reporting his affair with Young Conservative Paul Stone. According to Stone, Hayes picked him up at a meeting of the Stonewall
gay rights pressure group during the 1991 Conservative conference in Blackpool
, and that same evening, "Hayes then committed a lewd act which was in breach of the law at the time", relating to the fact that Stone was 18 at the time, and the legal age of homosexual sex in 1991 was 21. He had previously supported Section 28
and other anti-gay legislation, but had, in the years leading up to 1997, become a supporter of LGBT equality.
Hayes' blog
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician, the MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Harlow
Harlow (UK Parliament constituency)
Harlow is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
from 1983 until 1997. He subsequently returned to practising criminal law.
Political career
He was Member of ParliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Harlow
Harlow (UK Parliament constituency)
Harlow is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
from 1983. He served on the Health and Heritage Select Committees and was a Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
in the Northern Ireland Office
Northern Ireland Office
The Northern Ireland Office is a United Kingdom government department responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and is based in Northern Ireland at Stormont House.-Role:...
and the Department of Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
. He introduced a number of Acts including the Sexual Offences Act, the Nurse Prescribing Act and the Video Recordings Act. Hayes lost his seat in 1997 to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in the 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
.
Views
Hayes was on the left on the Conservative Party, unlike most of the 1983 intake of Conservative MPs. Hayes opposed capital punishment, fought for free dental and eye check-ups. On his blog, Hayes stated "I’m on the independent left of the Conservative Party. During the Thatcher years I was regarded as a rebel. Heaven knows why, I just believed in social justice and pragmatism. But in those days that was about as popular as a rat sandwich. On one occasion I reduced our majority from 140 to 4. I was not always popular with the right". Once, when asked why he did not support Blair's "New Labour" endeavour, he replied "They're too right-wing".Image
Roth's Parliamentary Profiles says of Hayes "has never taken himself seriously, and therefore has not been taken seriously by others". Former Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty BoothroydBetty Boothroyd
Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC is a British politician, who served as Member of Parliament for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000, initially for the Labour Party and, from 1992 to 2000, as Speaker of the House of Commons...
said of Hayes that "he would look very pretty as a French maid; I wish I had his curls". Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
has a personal dislike of his beard and yellow ties, which he refused to change, when asked. Hayes was a regular contributor on television quiz show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
s and talk shows, in particular, The James Whale Show. For over four years he regularly appeared with Charles Kennedy
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006 and is currently a Member of Parliament for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency....
, Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
and Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
on a political discussion show on LBC in London. Hayes appeared on comedy show Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
in 1992, on which he was unafraid to ridicule his own party and it was revealed that he is Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
's "favourite Tory", which Hayes compared to being "Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
's favourite Catholic". Hayes was frequently described as a "political buffoon", because of his willingness to subject himself to ridicule on various television and radio appearances. This included being fastened in the stocks and pelted with custard pies, and to be whipped while dressed in fetish clothing.
When the heavy metal group Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
were having trouble getting permission to play in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Hayes threw his weight behind them (one member was a constituent). "I have advised [the Foreign Office] the group is not a bad influence," he said. "In fact they are very good: I have all their albums."
After Parliament
Following his career in Parliament, he wrote for the magazine PunchPunch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
. In 2006, a bomb was found near his house in the village of Wendens Ambo
Wendens Ambo
Wendens Ambo is a small village of approximately four hundred people in Essex, England. Its unusual name originates from the joining of two villages, Great and Little Wenden, to form Wendens Ambo, meaning "both Wendens".- Situation :...
, near Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a medium-sized market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and approx north of London...
in Essex. In May 2010, Hayes started a political blog for the website "Think Politics", which also hosts blogs by former Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
MP for Falmouth Camborne, Julia Goldsworthy
Julia Goldsworthy
Julia Anne Goldsworthy is a Special Adviser in HM Treasury to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. She was the Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne from 2005 until she lost her seat by 66 votes to George Eustice, the Conservative candidate in the 2010 general election in...
, current Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP for Denton and Reddish, Andrew Gwynne
Andrew Gwynne
Andrew John Gwynne is a British Labour Party politician and has been the Member of Parliament for Denton and Reddish since 2005, replacing the retiring Andrew Bennett.-Early life:...
, and Conservative candidate for Swansea West
Swansea West (UK Parliament constituency)
Swansea West is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
, René Kinzett. His blog has now moved to Total Politics.
Legal career
Hayes was called to the Bar by Middle TempleMiddle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
in 1977. Hayes has practised as lead defence counsel in high-profile cases, including R v McGing and R v Tishane Bernard. McGing was a soldier in Basra accused of drowning a teenager whilst on patrol. He was acquitted. Tishane Bernard was accused of a gangland execution, he was also acquitted. Hayes also represented two Labour councillors accused of postal Ballot fraud in Birmingham, leading to the first election court
Election court
An Election Court is, in United Kingdom election law, a special court convened to hear a petition against the result of a local government or Parliamentary election. The court is created to hear the individual case, and ceases to exist when it has made its decision.- Statutory basis :Election...
in one hundred years. He was instrumental in setting up Ten17 radio with Tony Saxby and Russ Lewell in 1991. He acted as lawyer to John Hemming
John Hemming (politician)
John Alexander Melvin Hemming is a British politician, the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley and Group Chair of the Liberal Democrats on the city council of Birmingham, England....
in his 2005 legal bid to challenge postal votes at the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
and has also defended celebrities and a British soldier in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Hayes works at Argent Chambers.
Scandal
In 1997, Hayes was the subject of a "sting", "outing" him as a homosexual, by the News of the WorldNews of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
. The newspaper ran with the headline "TORY MP 2-TIMED WIFE WITH UNDER-AGE GAY LOVER", reporting his affair with Young Conservative Paul Stone. According to Stone, Hayes picked him up at a meeting of the Stonewall
Stonewall (UK)
Stonewall is a lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity in the United Kingdom named after the Stonewall Inn of Stonewall riots fame. Now the largest gay equality organization not only in the UK but in Europe, it was formed in 1989 by political activists and others lobbying against section 28 of the...
gay rights pressure group during the 1991 Conservative conference in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, and that same evening, "Hayes then committed a lewd act which was in breach of the law at the time", relating to the fact that Stone was 18 at the time, and the legal age of homosexual sex in 1991 was 21. He had previously supported Section 28
Section 28
Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the controversial addition of Section 2A to the Local Government Act 1986 , enacted on 24 May 1988 and repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland, and on 18 November 2003 in the rest of Great Britain by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003...
and other anti-gay legislation, but had, in the years leading up to 1997, become a supporter of LGBT equality.
External references
Hayes' Twitter feedHayes' blog