Jonathan Aitken

Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a former British Conservative politician. A Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1997, he was formerly a Cabinet minister and Privy Counsellor. Convicted of perjury in 1999, Aitken received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months. He is currently Honorary President of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and was ordained as a Church of England priest in 2019.

Quotes

• If you asked her [Margaret Thatcher] about Sinai, she would probably think it was the plural for sinus.
  • As quoted in James Prior A Balance of Power (1986), p. 107.

• If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.
  • Criticising press reports that he had violated the ministerial code of conduct; he later started a libel trial, which ended in his conviction for perjury.
  • Statement (10 April 1995); as quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, 3rd ed., (2007), p. 6.

• As far as the physical miseries go, I am sure I will cope. I lived at Eton in the 1950s and I know all about life in uncomfortable quarters.
  • On how he might cope with prison, as quoted in Daily Express (19 January 1999).

• It's a fairly unique position; to have been in charge of prison funding and then to have been an inmate. I wish I'd been more generous.
  • As quoted in The Times (3 June 2000).

• [On entering HM Prison Belmarsh in 1999] But the prison psychiatrist I saw on arrival clearly didn’t have a TV set. Calling me by my prison number, CB9298, he ran through standard questions about next of kin. "Does anyone apart from your next of kin know you are in prison?" I replied, "Maybe 9 or 10 million people." He paused, and said, "May I ask if you have ever suffered from delusions?"
• I always respond positively to any prisoner who reaches out to me on the principle laid down by Frank Longford [...] of 'hate the sin, love the sinner'. I don't draw a judgmental line, but nor do I fish for visit requests.
• I've had a racier past than most priests.
  • "Jonathan Aitken: My disasters were entirely my fault. I didn’t know when to stop", The Telegraph (28 June 2026).

Quotes about Aitken

• He lied and lied and lied.
  • Of his conviction for perjury; in "He lied and lied and lied" by Luke Harding and David Palmister, in The Guardian (21 June 1997).