well known to his colleagues as a homosexual, and not much liked. His Bill was given a second reading by 164 to 107 on 11 February 1966, but fell when Parliament was dissolved soon after. Unexpectedly, Berkeley lost his seat in the 1966 general election, and ascribed his defeat to the unpopularity of his bill on homosexuality. Out of Parliament, Berkeley took a job as Chairman of the United Nations Association. In this capacity he employed Jeffrey Archer, who was establishing a reputation for raising large amounts of money for charities, to organise the UNA's flag day collection. Despite barely increasing the previous year's total, Archer was promoted to organise a dinner at 10 Downing Street which raised over £200,000. Berkeley would later accuse Archer of having made false expenses claims whilst he worked for the UNA. In 1968 he had resigned from the Conservative Party, largely in opposition to its stance on the Vietnam War. In 1970, he joined the Labour Party and stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate for Fylde North in October 1974. He then spent time apparently working as a roving ambassador of the now defunct Republic of Transkei, a bantustan, until he was abducted one night in February 1979 while dining at the Umtata Holiday Inn, and assaulted on the side of a road, put into the boot of a car, and dumped over the border at Kei Bridge. As a moderate and pro-European he joined the SDP in 1981, and fought Southend East for them in 1987. In 1988 with the SDP splitting over whether to merge with the Liberals, he rejoined Labour. References External links The Berkeley Night The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath by Humphry Berkeley Berkeley's speech on the Second reading of the Sexual Offences Bill 1926 births 1994 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Gay politicians British gay writers English LGBT politicians People educated at Malvern College Presidents of the Cambridge Union Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom 20th-century LGBT people