Conference Speech
Ashton saw himself as the 'shop steward' for the Parliamentary Labour Party. When left-wing Labour Party activists demanded that sitting MPs submit themselves to their local parties for approval in each Parliament, he made a strong speech at the Labour Party conference in which he said he was pleading to save the jobs of the MPs. He referred to the large number of Labour MPs who had died of stress-related illnesses and linked that to pressure brought on them by their local parties.
Police raids on two massage parlours in Northampton resulted in the discovery of Joe Ashton, then Labour MP for Bassetlaw, in the Siam Sauna . Two years before he stood down, he faced allegations about his presence with a 21-year-old Thai woman at a 'Thai massage parlour' in Kingsley Park Terrace, Northampton during a police raid in November 1998. Following his retirement, he was succeeded by John Mann.
In 2007, Ashton was awarded an OBE.
Read more about this topic: Joe Ashton
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