From Enoch Powell to Mad Jack Mytton: Infamous MPs who won a General Election in the West Midlands
A General Election looms and from it will emerge, hopefully, politicians who work tirelessly for this region, whose endeavours for their constituents will, in later years, be remembered with pride.
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But we have had our share of MPs who have gone down in history for the wrong reasons, who have created unwanted headlines. Today we look at five who chased political fame yet achieved infamy during a General Election.
JOHN “MAD JACK” MYTTON (Tory, Shrewsbury)
Mytton, the son of Shropshire gentry, emerged from the womb with a silver spoon wedged in his mouth, on September 30, 1796. Not long after taking his first steps along the corridors of Halston Hall, Whittington, near Oswestry, he developed an appetite for destruction. An insatiable appetite for destruction.
Mad Jack was not only this region’s worst Member of Parliament, he is among the most inept in this nation’s history.
He secured his seat by offering voters £10 notes. The astronomical sum spent on Mytton’s campaign was not money well spent. The good folk of Shrewsbury certainly deserved better.
In all, he spent only 30 minutes in the House of Commons, finding the debate dull and hard to follow. It was not for him and when Parliament was dissolved in 1820, Mytton decided not to stand in the forthcoming election.
Mytton was, quite frankly, off the rails, his cruel practical jokes and potentially fatal stunts fuelled by an eight-bottles-a-day addiction to port.
The numerous tales of Mytton’s excess are myriad and many reveal a total disregard for the man’s own health and safety. “Not only did he not mind accidents, he positively liked them,” a friend confided.
He deliberately upended a horse and carriage – injuring a passenger – so the friend could experience the thrill of the spill. He suffered severe burns when setting fire to his nightshirt to cure hiccups. It worked. He entertained dinner guests at his stately home by riding a bear into the room. Those diners fled in terror when Jack dug his spurs into the beast, causing the enraged animal to rampage.
Mytton was also a serial 'flasher' with a taste for naked duck hunting and an overwhelming desire to rip his clothes off when overcome by the excitement of fox hunting.
Mytton died, having squandered his vast fortune, in debtors’ prison aged only 37. It’s a surprise he lived that long.
JABEZ BALFOUR (Liberal, Tamworth)
Some political careers are destroyed by carnal desire, others by corruption. Balfour, who served Tamworth from 1880 to 1885, fell into the latter camp.
And he paid a heavy price for his vice.
In 1892, Balfour, by then MP for Burnley, executed a swindle that ruined thousands of investors. He was at the helm of a number of companies, including the Liberator Building Society, at the centre of the scam.
Rather than advancing money to homebuyers, the society presented it to property companies for one purpose: to buy homes – at a sky-high price – owned by Balfour. His firms collapsed and, with Scotland Yard on his tail, Jabez fled to Argentina.
There the police adopted tactics that would do The Sweeney proud. Fed up by the red tape and wrangling surrounding Balfour’s extradition, Inspector Frank Froest effectively kidnapped his target in 1895, bundling him on a train and boat back to Britain.
At the Old Bailey, Balfour was sentenced to 14 years' “penal servitude” and endured a very tough time in Portland Prison until his release in 1906.
Jabez died on February 23, 1916, aged 72. He met his maker while travelling on a train.
