Jeremy Joseph James Hayes (born 1952 or 1953) is a British barrister and former

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

politician, who was the MP for

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

in Essex from 1983 until he failed to be re-elected in 1997. He subsequently returned to practising criminal law.

Early life

Hayes' father was in the Merchant Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Hayes grew up in Epping and was educated at the

London Oratory School The London Oratory School, also known as "The Oratory" or "The London Oratory" to distinguish it from other schools, is a Selective Catholic Voluntary Aided secondary school for boys aged 7–18 and girls aged 16–18 in West Brompton. Foun ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

Political career

Hayes was selected as the

candidate for

in Essex in 1981. He was Member of Parliament for Harlow from

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. He served on the Health and Heritage Select committees and was a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

and the

Department of Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the 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 to

Bill Rammell William Ernest Rammell (born 10 October 1959) is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harlow from 1997 until 2010, and served as a Minister of State in several departments from 2002. From August 2 ...

, the Labour Party candidate, in the 1997 general election.

Views

Hayes was on the left on the Conservative Party, unlike most of the 1983 intake of Conservative MPs. Hayes opposed

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

and fought for free dental and eye check-ups. On his blog, Hayes wrote, "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." Once, when asked why he did not support

Blair Blair is a Scots-English-language name of Scottish Gaelic origin. The surname is derived from any of the numerous places in Scotland called ''Blair'', derived from the Scottish Gaelic ''blàr'', meaning "plain", "meadow" or " field", frequently ...

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

endeavour, he replied "They're too right-wing". On the BBC ''Question Time'' programme on 9 May 2013, he expressed the view that there was a real danger that the entire legal profession would be placed in the hands of

G4S G4S is a British multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in July 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a range of services, in ...

within a couple of years.

Image

Roth's Parliamentary Profiles says of Hayes: " ehas never taken himself seriously, and therefore has not been taken seriously by others."

Betty Boothroyd Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (8 October 1929 – 26 February 2023), was a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich (UK Parliament constituency), West Bromwich an ...

, former

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

, said of Hayes that "he would look very pretty as a French maid; I wish I had his curls."

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

personally disliked his beard and yellow ties, which he refused to change, when asked. Hayes was a regular contributor on television

quiz show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating and narrating whe ...

s and talk shows, in particular, '' The James Whale Show''. For over four years he regularly appeared with

Charles Kennedy Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 19591 June 2015) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 to 2015. Kennedy wa ...

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English former politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was Local Government Act 1985, abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of Londo ...

and

Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (28 March 1935 – 16 August 2023) was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other ta ...

on a political discussion show on

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadc ...

in London. Hayes appeared on comedy show ''

Have I Got News for You ''Have I Got News for You'' (''HIGNFY'') is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990. The programme focuses on two teams, one usually captained by Ian Hislop and one ...

'' in 1992, on which he was unafraid to ridicule his own party and it was revealed that he was

's "favourite Tory". 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 being whipped while dressed in fetish clothing. When the heavy metal group

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

were having trouble getting permission to play in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Hayes threw his weight behind them (one member was a constituent). "I have advised he Foreign Officethe 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 '' Punch''. 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 Andrew John Gwynne (born 4 June 1974) is a British politician who is Member of Parliament (MP) for Gorton and Denton, previously Denton and Reddish, since 2005. He was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Preventi ...

, and Conservative candidate for Swansea West, René Kinzett. His blog has now moved to Total Politics. Hayes also became a panelist on Stephen Nolan's weekend late night show on Fridays on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

, reviewing the newspapers with Mohammed Shafiq, a media commentator on British-Muslim issues.

Legal career

Hayes was called to the Bar by the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

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, and was also acquitted. He was instrumental in setting up Ten 17 radio with Tony Saxby and Russ Lewell in 1991. He acted as lawyer to John Hemming in his 2005 legal bid to challenge

postal vote Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an el ...

s at the 2005 general election and has also defended celebrities and a British soldier in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. Hayes also represented two Labour councillors accused of postal ballot fraud in Birmingham. Hayes works at Goldsmith Chambers on whose website he is described as specialising in leading high-profile murder, drugs, rape and fraud cases. He discontinued the rape prosecution of Liam Allan in December 2017 after it was discovered that the police had withheld tens of thousands of text messages sent by the complainant.

Personal life

Hayes is married to Alison and has two children, Lawrence and Francesca. In January 1997, the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

'' reported that in 1991, Hayes began an affair with an 18-year-old male Conservative researcher which lasted for over a year. Hayes denied any sexual component to their relationship and said they were only friends. The decision to report the story drew criticism from other newspapers, with Peter Popham writing in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', "One has to ask why Jerry Hayes's gay fling/platonic friendship should be thought to have any bearing on anything besides the emotions of those two people and, arguably, those close to them". He is a member of the Savile Club.

References

External links

Hayes' Twitter feedHayes' blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Jerry 1950s births 20th-century English lawyers 21st-century English lawyers Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English LGBTQ politicians English barristers LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom Living people Members of the Middle Temple People educated at Alleyn Court School People educated at London Oratory School UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Year of birth missing (living people)