Just 9 days before this scandal, William Wragg the Tory MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester, resigned the party whip after admitting to giving out colleagues’ personal phone numbers to someone he met on the gay dating app Grindr. He gave out the contacts fearing that if he didn’t comply with the demand, the man would release intimate pictures of him.

Bone's disgraceful behaviour came to light just days after another Senior Tory MP Crispin Blunt was also suspended, this time by his party, after being arrested by Police on suspicion of rape and the possession of controlled substances. Blunt also had to publicly apologise for defending former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan, following that MP's conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage boy. Khan was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

It all came just two years after the then Tory whip Chris Pincher resigned from his government role after allegations that he had groped two men while drunk at London's exclusive Carlton Club. This total lack of “integrity and accountability" is however nothing new for the Conservatives in Government as it's been missing from our politics for centuries.

The scandal, along with the subsequent trials of Oscar Wilde, contributed to an anti-homosexual panic that shaped British public attitudes to gay men for years to come.

In the summer of 1889, while investigating a theft at a London post and telegraph office, police came across a teenage delivery boy with 18 shillings in his pocket - more than someone in his position might be expected to earn.

In July, police went to the Cleveland Street house to arrest proprietor Charles Hammond and his accomplices, bearing a warrant charging that they "did unlawfully, wickedly, and corruptly" conspire to procure young men "to commit the abominable crime of buggery." Hammond had already fled, but the police arrested Henry Newlove, an 18-year-old clerk. Newlove - who divulged that the clientele of the Cleveland Street brothel included several highly placed men - was tried, convicted, and sentenced to four months at hard labour.

Initially the case received little attention, but Ernest Parke, editor of the radical North London Press, soon took an interest in the matter. Just four years earlier, Member of Parliament Henry Labouchere had inserted a provision into the Criminal Law Amendment Act decreeing that "any male person who, in public or private, commits or is party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of any act of gross indecency with another male person" shall be imprisoned for up to two years.

Parke wondered why Newlove had gotten off with such a light sentence, and began to suspect a cover-up. In November, he published an article naming Lord Arthur Somerset (supervisor of the Prince of Wales' stables) and the Earl of Euston as clients of the Cleveland Street operation. "These men have been allowed to leave the country and thus defeat the ends of justice," wrote Parke, "because their prosecution would disclose the fact that a far more distinguished and more highly placed personage than themselves was inculpated in their disgusting crimes."

Fearing prosecution under the gross indecency statute, Lord Somerset had indeed fled to Europe. But the Earl of Euston remained in England and filed libel charges against Parke, claiming he had only been to the Cleveland Street house once - mistakenly believing he would see a female nudie show - and had left immediately. Unwilling to reveal his sources, Parke was limited in the witnesses whom he could call in his defence, and he was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison. Suspecting that the cover-up extended to the highest levels of government, M.P. Labouchere called for an inquiry in February 1890, but his motion was defeated by a large margin.

Many assumed that the "more highly placed personage" Parke referred to was none other than the Duke of Clarence, Prince Albert Victor (familiarly known as Eddy), the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, and the grandson of Queen Victoria. The 25-year-old Eddy was a dull-witted man given to impeccable dress and personal indiscretions. In addition to the Cleveland Street Scandal, rumours also connected Eddy and his associates to the 1888 Whitechapel murders, in which several female prostitutes were savagely killed and disemboweled in London's East End slums. Some who have studied the events have claimed that Eddy himself was Jack the Ripper, while others have fingered Eddy's coachman, the royal family's physician, and Eddy's tutor (who was also reputedly his lover). After Eddy died in 1892, his father had his letters destroyed, and the mystery remains unsolved.

None of the prominent men implicated in the Cleveland Street Scandal were ever punished, and some of the rent boys were reportedly paid to leave the country. The affair had a major influence on British attitudes toward homosexuality, reinforcing the perception that decadent aristocrats were corrupting working-class youth. The scandal, and its sensational coverage in the press, sustained a sex panic against "buggers" that would culminate in Oscar Wilde's trials in 1895. Labouchere's gross indecency law remained in effect until 1967.

HONORABLE GENTLEMEN

And then there are these 15 Conservative MPs who made their own headline news during the last parliament:

• Scott Benton - had the whip removed after he made an offer to reporters, posing as investors, that he would lobby ministers in return for payments. 10% of registered voters in Blackpool South signed a recall petition to get rid of him. By-election loss.
• Crispin Blunt - arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances. He stood down at the last election.
• Peter Bone - suspended from the Commons after being accused of bullying and sexual misconduct. The Commons regulator found that he had repeatedly hit and verbally abused a member of his staff, often asked him for massages and on one occasion put his bare genitals in the other man's face. Bone was recalled by more than 10% of his constituents and is no longer an MP. By-election lost to Labour.
• Andrew Bridgen - was permanently expelled from the Conservative party last April following the recommendation of a disciplinary panel. He lost the Tory whip after comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust, and had used his platform to promote anti-vax conspiracy theories. He quit the Tory party to join Reform, and then quit from Reform after a difference of opinion.
• Charlie Elphicke - convicted and jailed for two years for sexual harassment. No longer an MP. His wife who took his seat has now defected to another political party.
• Matt Hancock - resigned for his breach of Covid rules, when it came to light that he was having an affair with a member of his parliamentary office. He was found to have broken the Ministerial code and had the Tory whip removed. He stood down at the last election.
• Imran Ahmad Khan - convicted and jailed for sexual abuse of a teenage boy. No longer an MP. By-election loss.
• Julian Knight - was suspended from the Conservative whip in December 2022 after serious sexual assault allegations were made against him to the police. He stood as an independent candidate at the last election and came last out of six candidates with just 594 votes.
• Mark Menzies - suspended over claims he allegedly misused campaign funds that he demanded from an aide to pay off “bad people” who had locked him in a flat. He stood down at the last election.
• Neil Parish - admitted to watching porn in the chamber of the House of Commons. No longer an MP. By-election loss.
• Chris Pincher - suspended after being accused of sexually assaulting two men at a London club. No longer an MP. By-election loss.
• Dominic Raab - resigned after an investigation concluded he was guilty of bullying behavior as a minister in his department. He stood down at the last election.
• David Warburton - resigned in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. No longer an MP. By-election loss.
• Gavin Williamson - told by a Parliamentary independent expert panel to apologise to the House of Commons and to take behavioural training. He resigned from the Government as Minister of State without Portfolio.
• William Wragg - resigned the party whip after admitting to giving out colleagues’ personal phone numbers to someone he met on gay dating app Grindr because he feared the release intimate pictures of him. He stood down at the last election.
• Nadhim Zahawi - sacked as chair of the Conservative party for committing "serious breaches" of the ministerial code over his tax affairs. He stood down at the last election.

There were 87 Tory MPs who stood down at the last election, defected to another party, lost the Tory whip, lost their seat in a by-election, or who have been jailed since taking office. This total exceeded the previous Tory exodus, which took place ahead of Labour's 1997 landslide victory.

The local elections on May 1st give you an opportunity to make your voice heard, and get rid of more Torys who behave so badly. Make sure you use your votes wisely.

REMEMBER TO TAKE YOUR PHOTO ID and go to your local polling station to use your votes wisely. Don't leave it to others - Make your voice heard!

More Reading:

The Cleveland Street Scandal, H. Montgomery Hyde, WHAllen
Available from Amazon

The Cleveland Street Affair, Lewis, Chester et al, Weidenfeld&Nicholson
Available from Amazon