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John Stonehouse, MP and minister under Harold Wilson’ Labour Government, was notable for faking his own death. He ‘took to the hills’ on 27 Aug 1976 by taking The Chiltern Hundreds.p>
Because he was not appointed to the Shadow Cabinet following the election defeat of 1970, he set up various companies in an attempt to secure a regular income. By 1974 these were mostly in financial trouble and he had resorted to cooking the books. Aware that the Department for Trade and Industry were looking at his affairs, he faked suicide in 1974, leaving a pile of clothes on a Miami beach.
He fled to Australia, setting up a new life with his mistress and secretary, but was discovered by coincidence, as Australian police thought he was Lord Lucan. He returned in June 1975, and was remanded in Brixton Prison until August, continuing to act as an MP. The Labour Party did not expel him, but in April 1976 he resigned the Labour whip, making them a minority government.
Stonehouse conducted his own defence at the trial but was convicted and sentenced to prison for seven years for fraud. He was released from prison in 1979, wrote a number of books, and died in 1988 from a heart attack on live television, after a period of illness.
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