John Profumo - Political Career

Political Career

In 1940, while still serving in the army, Profumo was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kettering constituency, Northamptonshire at a by-election on 3 March. Shortly afterwards he voted against the Chamberlain government in the debate following the British defeat at Narvik in Norway. (This defiance on Profumo's part enraged the Government Whip, David Margesson, who wrote to him a letter containing the following: 'I can tell you this, you utterly contemptible little shit. On every morning that you wake up for the rest of your life you will be ashamed of what you did last night.') Profumo was the youngest MP at that time, and by the time of his death he was last surviving member of the 1940 House of Commons. At the 1945 election Profumo was defeated at Kettering by a Labour candidate, Dick Mitchison. Later in 1945 he was chief of staff to the British Mission to Japan. In 1950 he left the army and at the general election in February 1950 he was elected for Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire, a safe Conservative seat.

Profumo was a well-connected politician with a good war record, and (despite Margesson's above-mentioned outburst) was highly regarded in the Conservative party. These qualities helped him to rise steadily through the ranks of the Conservative government that was elected in 1951. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in November 1952, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in November 1953, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in January 1957, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in November 1958, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1959. In 1954 he married the actress Valerie Hobson. In July 1960, Profumo was appointed a Secretary of State for War, (outside of the cabinet) and a member of the Privy Council.