Британские политические скандалы: хроника и разоблачения.

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This is a list of political scandals in the United Kingdom in chronological order. Scandals implicating political figures or governments of the UK, often reported in the mass media, have long had repercussions for their popularity. Issues in political scandals have included alleged or proven financial and sexual matters, or various other allegations or actions taken by politicians that led to controversy. In British media and political discourse, such scandals have sometimes been referred to as political sleaze since the 1990s. in which the Liberal Party MP Jabez Balfour was exposed as running several fraudulent companies to conceal financial losses. Balfour fled to Argentina, but was eventually arrested and imprisoned.

Vassall affair (1963): civil servant John Vassall, working for Minister Tam Galbraith, was revealed to be a spy for the Soviet Union and was arrested. The affair was investigated in the Vassall tribunal. Profumo affair (1963): Secretary of State for War John Profumo had an affair with Christine Keeler (to whom he had been introduced by artist Stephen Ward) who was having an affair with a Soviet spy at the same time. The Robert Boothby (Tory), Tom Driberg (Labour), Kray brothers affair and consequent cover up involving senior politicians of both parties. The Daily Mirror published some details of the matter and was falsely sued for libel.

The Iris Robinson scandal in which First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson stepped aside for six weeks in January 2010 following revelations of his wife's involvement in an extramarital affair, her attempted suicide, and allegations that he had failed to properly declare details of loans she had procured for her lover to develop a business venture. Red Sky scandal, involving contracts given to company Red Sky by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. The 2010 cash for influence scandal, in which undercover reporters for the Dispatches television series posed as political lobbyists offering to pay Members of Parliament to influence policy. On 29 May 2010 Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws resigned from the Cabinet and was referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after The Daily Telegraph newspaper published details of Laws claiming around £40,000 in expenses on a second home owned by a secret partner between 2004 and 2009, whilst House of Commons rules have prevented MPs from claiming second home expenses on properties owned by a partner since 2006. By resigning Laws became the shortest serving Minister in modern British political history with less than 18 days' service as a Cabinet Minister.

Conservative Party 'cash for access' scandal involving Peter Cruddas and Sarah Southern, March 2012. In February 2012 Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne resigned from the Cabinet when he was charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case. His wife Vicky Pryce had claimed that she was driving the car, and accepted the licence penalty points on his behalf so that he could avoid being banned from driving. Huhne pleaded guilty at his trial, resigned as a member of parliament, and he and Pryce were sentenced to eight months in prison for perverting the course of justice. In October 2012, Andrew Mitchell resigned from his post as Chief Whip following allegations made about his conduct during an altercation with police at Downing Street on 19 September, the incident becoming known as "plebgate".

In the 2013 Labour Party Falkirk candidate selection, which began following the announcement that the incumbent MP Eric Joyce was to step down at the 2015 general election, allegations were made on the significant infiltration of the selection process by the Unite trade union, the Labour Party's largest financial backer.

In April 2014 Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, resigned following pressure relating to the results of an investigation into her past expenses claims. On 20 November 2014 Emily Thornberry resigned her shadow cabinet position shortly after polls closed in the Rochester and Strood by election. Earlier in the day, she had received criticism after tweeting a photograph of a house in the constituency adorned with three flags of St. George and the owner's white van parked outside on the driveway, under the caption "Image from #Rochester", provoking accusations of snobbery. She was criticised by fellow Labour Party MPs, including leader Ed Miliband who said her tweet conveyed a "sense of disrespect". Namagate, involving allegations that First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson may have financially benefitted from a deal with National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

In September 2015, Lord Ashcroft published a biography of David Cameron, which suggested that the then Prime Minister took drugs regularly and performed an "outrageous initiation ceremony" which involved inserting "a private part of his anatomy" into the mouth of a dead pig during his time in university. This became known as "piggate". It also led to questions about the Prime Minister's honesty with party donors' known tax statuses as Lord Ashcroft suggested he had openly discussed his non domiciled status with him in 2009, earlier than previously thought.

In 2017 the contaminated blood scandal, in which many haemophiliacs died from infected Factor medicine, hit the headlines and Parliament with allegations of an "industrial scale" criminal cover up. MP Ken Clarke retracted remarks from his autobiography relating to the scandal and a public inquiry is now underway. The Renewable Heat Incentive scandal in Northern Ireland, in which Arlene Foster set up a green energy scheme but failed to introduce cost controls, creating perverse incentives which eventually led to a £480m bill to the Northern Ireland budget. There were allegations that members of the Democratic Unionist Party attempted to postpone the closure of the scheme, which gave way to a spike in applications and causing the public purse millions of pounds. In January 2017, the scandal caused the resignation of the deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, after Foster refused to stand aside as First Minister pending an investigation, collapsing the Executive Office and triggering an early election of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The resulting political rifts meant the Assembly did not meet again until 2020.

The 2018 Windrush scandal, involving members of the Windrush generation being wrongly detained, deported, or threatened with deportation which caused the resignation of then Home Secretary, Amber Rudd.

The Dominic Cummings scandal, where Dominic Cummings, chief strategist of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, broke COVID 19 pandemic restrictions during the UK's first nationwide lockdown while experiencing symptoms of the disease. Cummings and Johnson rejected calls for the former to resign. It was suggested that the scandal undermined the public's compliance with pandemic restrictions. The Alex Salmond scandal concerned how the Scottish Government, led by incumbent First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, breached its own guidelines in its investigation into the harassment claims against Sturgeon's predecessor as First Minister, Alex Salmond. The Scottish Government lost a judicial review into their actions and had to pay over £500,000 to Salmond for legal expenses. Critics accused Sturgeon of breaking the Ministerial Code which resulted in calls for her resignation. Sturgeon disputed the allegations, arguing that while mistakes had been made, her government acted appropriately.

The Greensill scandal, where former Prime Minister David Cameron approached a number of government ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital to lobby for the company to receive Covid Corporate Financing Facility loans. The Sun published pictures and then video of leaked CCTV footage from inside the Department of Health of Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo kissing in a breach of COVID 19 social distancing guidance. Boris Johnson accepted Matt Hancock's apology and stated that he "considers the matter closed", however the Health Secretary resigned the following day. In November 2021, Conservative MP Owen Paterson was found to have broken paid advocacy rules Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards but instead of approving his suspension, the government enforced a three line whip on Conservative MPs to pass a motion that the investigation was "clearly flawed". After an outcry from opposition parties, the government made a U turn and Paterson resigned. Partygate involving social gatherings by Downing Street and Conservative Party staff during COVID 19 restrictions in late 2020.

Neil Parish, Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, was forced to resign in April after it was discovered that he had watched pornography in the House of Commons on at least two occasions. Chris Pincher scandal. Chris Pincher, the Deputy Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, resigned on 30th June following allegations about him groping two men. Further allegations of harassment emerged against Pincher, along with claims that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had already been informed of his behaviour. The incremental effect of this and other recent controversies led to the resignation of 59 Conservative politicians, most notably Rishi Sunak as Chancellor and Sajid Javid as Health Secretary. This in turn, led to Boris Johnson committing to resign as leader of the Conservative Party, and thus as prime minister, when his replacement as leader had been chosen by his party.

In March 2024, The Guardian reported that Frank Hester, the largest ever donor to the Conservative Party, had made comments in a 2019 company meeting about the MP Diane Abbott. The paper reported that he said that looking at Abbott makes you "want to hate all black women" and that she "should be shot", as well as making comments about a female executive from another organisation, saying "it would be much better if she died", and about his own Asian female employees, saying “we take the piss out of the fact that all our Chinese girls sit together in Asian corner”.