Neil Hamilton

Hamilton rose through the ranks of the British Conservative Party during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1983, he became the party's Member of Parliament for Tatton in North-West England. In 1996, Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of the Harrod's department store in London, claimed that Hamilton had accepted bribes to ask questions in the British Parliament. Neil Hamilton strenuously denied the allegations, but this was just one of a number of damaging "sleaze" allegations facing the ruling Conservative Party in the run-up to the 1997 General Election. Former BBC news reporter Martin Bell stood against Hamilton as an independent candidate and famously defeated him in a landslide victory, ending Hamilton's political career. Neil and his wife Christine Hamilton have subsequently become celebrities thanks to several memorable confrontations between them and Bell, which were broadcast nationwide on news programmes. They appeared on the satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You (1990) shortly af