UK: Tory Mark Menzies Resigned After Revelations Came About His Male Brazilian Prostitutes
Tory MP Mark Menzies resigned as a ministerial aide last night after claims that he asked a Brazilian rent boy he was paying for sex to supply illegal drugs.
Mr Menzies was accused by Rogerio Santos of asking him to get hold of methedrone, a class-B drug dubbed the poor man’s cocaine, reports said.
Mr Santos, whom the MP is said to have met on a gay escort website, also claimed Mr Menzies, 42, paid for his services 18 months ago before showing him around Parliament.
Allegations: MP Mark Menzies, pictured with TV presenters Naomi Wilksinson and Dermot O'Leary, has quit
Last night, Mr Menzies, a parliamentary aide (PPS) to International Development Minister Alan Duncan, said he was standing down from his post to fight ‘untrue’ allegations.
He said: ‘I have decided to resign as a PPS after a series of allegations were made against me in a Sunday newspaper. A number of these allegations are not true and I look forward to setting the record straight in due course.’
In reports last night, Mr Santos, said to be 19, claimed the Tory MP had paid him to have sex and asked him to obtain methedrone.
Texts on the Brazilian’s mobile phone apparently revealed messages asking him for full details about the quality of the drug and how much it cost.
Mr Santos, who lives in the Brazilian city Sao Paulo, said: ‘I have been having sex with a Conservative MP for money. Mark asked me to buy methedrone. I have personal messages of him talking to me about drugs.’
Mr Santos also reportedly claimed he had overstayed on his student visa and was in the UK illegally, although it is understood Mr Menzies was unaware of his immigration status.
The Brazilian maintained he was taken around Parliament by the MP and still has a ‘visitor’s permit’ but there was no suggestion Mr Menzies had broken any Commons rules.
Last night, a Tory source said the MP would be ‘getting help with personal issues’ in the wake of the claims.
Roman Catholic Mr Menzies, who is single, entered the Commons at the last General Election as the MP for Fylde in Lancashire. He was brought up by his mother on the west coast of Scotland. His father, who was in the Merchant Navy, died before he was born.
Mr Menzies won an assisted place at an independent school before studying at Glasgow University, and he joined Marks & Spencer as a trainee in 1994.
According to his website, he has been a Conservative Party member since he was 16 and in 2008 was selected to fight Fylde, a rock-solid Tory seat.
He won with a comfortable majority at the 2010 Election and quickly became an aide to Energy Minister Charles Hendry.
In the 2012 reshuffle, he became PPS to Housing Minister Mark Prisk, and last autumn he was moved again to become PPS to International Development Minister Alan Duncan.
Mr Duncan is the first openly gay Conservative MP.
Mr Menzies told the Commons last year that he had intended to abstain on the historic vote to legalise same-sex marriages but then voted in favour.
‘I came here to abstain, but I have listened to the debate like I have listened to no other, and it is now my intention not to abstain, but to support the Bill,’ he said.
By BRENDAN CARLIN, MAIL ON SUNDAY POLITICAL REPORTER
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