Members Behaving Badly
A History of Britain in 52 Parliamentary Rogues
Published 19 Feb 2026
Over the centuries, the House of Commons has been full of Members of Parliament of courage and conviction – remarkable people doing remarkable things for the good of all. Yet, just as often, it has harboured cheats and liars who have played games, played the markets and played the people who put trust in them. There have been abusers and kidnappers and murderers, violent men doing violent deeds, often using parliament as a front and excuse.
From 1603 to 1945, Members Behaving Badly tells the story of our nation through fifty-two of these parliamentary rogues. These are the MPs who made history – for all the wrong reasons.
From rake and poet Sir Charles Sedley, whose illicit partying while sozzled and stark naked caused a sensation even in Restoration London, to the stock-jobbing, flip-flopping chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, who proposed taxes that sparked a revolution, to David Lloyd George, Britain’s saviour during the First World War, but whose avarice, corruption, and abuse of honours ruined his political party forever, this is the story of the schemes and scandals of those members who behaved very badly indeed.
This is the history of Britain as you’ve never heard it before.
