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Jeremy Joseph James Hayes, known as Jerry Hayes, (born 20 April 1953) was a British Conservative politician, subsequently returning to his previous career as a barrister in criminal law. Hayes was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1977. He was Member of Parliament for Harlow in Essex from 1983. He served on the Health and Heritage Select Committees and was a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Northern Ireland Office and the Department of Environment. He introduced a number of Acts including the Sexual Offences Act, the Nurse Prescribing Act and the Video Recordings Act. He was on the left on the Conservative Party and was a regular contributor on television quiz shows and talk shows. In January 1997, he was "outed" by the News of the World , allegedly cheating on his wife Alison with an eighteen year old youth, Paul Stone, a research assistant. Hayes claimed their friendship was never sexual. This ignited a debate on the age of consent, and on Hayes' previous voting for legislation perceived as homophobic and subsequent support for homosexual equality. Paul Stone however asserted that their relationship had been intimate, that he was disappointed with his former lover's "hypocrisy," and produced a number of love letters. Hayes lost his seat not long afterwards to the Labour Party in their 1997 landslide election victory. Following his career in Parliament, he wrote for the magazine Punch and has practised as lead defence counsel in high-profile cases. He acted as lawyer to John Hemming in his 2005 legal bid to challenge postal votes at the 2005 general election and has also defended celebrities and a British soldier in Iraq.
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