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Ian Harvey

From LGBT History Project
Revision as of 22:37, 20 September 2012 by Ross Burgess (talk | contribs)

Ian Harvey (1914–1987) was a businessman and Conservative politician.

From 1950 to 1959 he was MP for Harrow East. In 1958 he was appointed a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office.

Resignation

In November 1958, Harvey and a Guardsman from the Coldstream Guards were found in the bushes in St. James's Park and arrested; Harvey tried but failed to escape, and attempted to give a false name on arrest. Both were charged with gross indecency and breach of the park regulations; when tried on 10 December, the indecency charge was dropped and both were fined £5.[1] Harvey subsequently resigned his ministerial post and his seat, forcing a by-election early in 1959, succeeded by conservative Anthony Courtney; he paid the guardsman's fine as well as his own.[2]

References

<references>

  1. BBC News, A history of Christmas scandal past, BBC News Online, 22 December 1998
  2. Alan Doig, "Westminster Babylon: Sex, money and scandal in British politics" (Allison and Busby, 1990), page 57.