John Staines was the Conservative Party MP for Stanstead during the 1990s. He supported Prime Minister Francis Urquhart's hard right policies, including his tough anti-terror legislation, and he was put in the public arena by party chairman Tim Stamper so that he could attack the royal family's supposed hypocrisy in claiming that Urquhart and his government suffered from moral pollution. However, he damaged his party's credibility when he was arrested for sex with a minor, having been seen attending a gay bar with an underage boy shortly before his arrest. Staines was arrested after leaving his speech in front of the House of Commons, and he was charged with a number of offenses against juveniles.