John Ryman QC (7 November 1930 – 3 May 2009) was a British Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) who sat as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

MP for his last year in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

. Ryman was educated at

Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading, Berkshire, Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having ...

, Reading, and

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

. Ryman was a barrister and a fox-hunter. He was elected MP for Blyth in the October 1974 general election, ousting the incumbent

Eddie Milne Edward James Milne (18 October 1915 – 23 March 1983) was a British Labour politician, who was elected as independent candidate after deselection by his party. He succeeded Alfred Robens as MP for Blyth, later known as Blyth Valley, in a ...

(who had been re-elected as an Independent Labour MP at the February 1974 election after being deselected as the official Labour candidate). In 1976 was fined £400 in under the

Representation of the People Act 1949 The Representation of the People Act 1949 ( 12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 68) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act consolidated previous electoral law, but also made some changes to administration. Representation of the People ...

and the

Perjury Act 1911 The Perjury Act 1911 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 6) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates the offence of perjury and a number of similar offences. The act has effect as if section 89 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967 and sectio ...

for falsifying his election expenses return and overspending, although the election result stood. In a close Parliament, Ryman's frequent absences from Parliament (either to continue his legal work or for other reasons) tried the patience of the whips. On one celebrated occasion the Chief Whip

Bob Mellish Robert Joseph Mellish, Baron Mellish, PC (3 March 1913 – 9 May 1998) was a British politician. He was a long-serving Labour Party MP of 36 years, from 1946 to 1982. He served as the Labour Chief Whip from 1969 until 1976, but in his later y ...

went on the radio to ask listeners to get in touch if they had spotted him. When the German Social Democrat

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. He was the longest ...

urged the Labour Party to support British membership of the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

, Ryman responded with "Why should this patronising

Hun A Hun is a member of the Huns, a confederation of nomadic tribes in Western Asia and Europe in late antiquity. Hun or huns may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Hun, a British subcultural stereotype, see Hun subculture * Hun, a charac ...

lecture the British Labour Party?" Ryman held off a strong challenge from Milne in the 1979 general election, holding his seat with a majority of over 7,000. The constituency was renamed

Blyth Valley Blyth Valley was a local government district with borough status in south-east Northumberland, England, bordering the North Sea and Tyne and Wear. The two principal towns were Blyth and Cramlington. Other population centres include Seaton De ...

for the

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general elec ...

, when the newly formed

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SDP) cut his majority to 3,243. In 1986, he announced that he was leaving the Labour Party and sat as an

until he retired at the 1987 general election. His successor was

Ronnie Campbell Ronald Campbell (14 August 1943 – 23 February 2024) was a British Labour politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blyth Valley from 1987 until 2019. Early life Ronald Campbell was born in Tynemouth, and grew up with seven siblings ...

. On 23 April 1992 Ryman was convicted of defrauding two women of their life savings. He had pretended to be the director of a

Swiss bank Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland's merchant trade and over the centuries has grown into a complex and regulated international industry. Banking is seen as very emblematic of Switzerland and the countr ...

and told the women that they would get 22·5% interest, but in fact paid the money to his ex-wife for maintenance payments. Ryman was given a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

Personal life

Ryman was a former husband of

Shirley Summerskill Shirley Catherine Wynne Summerskill (born 9 September 1931) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and former government minister, who served as the Member of Parliament for Halifax (UK Parliament constituency), Halifax from 196 ...

, another Labour MP. They married in 1957 but had divorced by the time he entered Parliament.''The New York Times Biographical Service'', Volume 6
page 1614 He was married five times in all. He claimed to have invested some money belonging to his fifth wife Nicola, a wealthy widow, in a high-yield Swiss bank account but in fact squandered the money on a horse, Jaguar car and holidays on the

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger luxury train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe, w ...

. He had previously narrowly escaped being prosecuted by the family of a mistress whose money he had also claimed to have invested in a Swiss account.

Notes

References

* ''Times Guide to the House of Commons'' 1983 * Richard Duce, "Ex-MP jailed for swindling women" (''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 24 April 1992) * ''The

Almanac of British Politics The ''Almanac of British Politics'' is a reference work which aims to provide a detailed look at the politics of the United Kingdom (UK) through an approach of profiling the social, economic and historical characteristics of each parliamentary cons ...

'' 1999 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryman, John 1930 births 2009 deaths English fraudsters British politicians convicted of fraud Independent politicians in England Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 People educated at Leighton Park School Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford 20th-century English businesspeople Spouses of British politicians