How Nazi stag party haunted MP Aidan Burley

The has come after mounting pressure on the MP, which is also said to have taken its toll on his 25-year-old fiancée Councillor Jodie Jones, following revelations that he not only attended a now infamous stag party in 2011, but also bought the notorious Nazi uniform worn by the groom.

The story came back to the fore in January because it had taken the French authorities more than two years to conclude an investigation and prosecution against groom Mark Fournier for wearing the SS uniform – something which is a crime in France.

• Aidan Burley MP to stand down after Nazi-themed stag criticism

The Conservative Party had investigated Mr Burley's conduct when the original images of him attending the party in the Alpine resort of Val Thorens emerged in 2011.

His mere attendance at the party cost him his job as Parliamentary Private Secretary (an unpaid aide role, but effectively the first rung on the ladder to being a minister) to the then transport secretary Justine Greening. Mr Burley believed at the time that he had been sufficiently punished. But the party sat on Lord David Gold's report until Mr Fournier's prosecution was concluded. It was a ticking time bomb as far as his career was concerned.

It has meant that Aidan Burley has had the shadow of the stag party hanging over him ever since. However, it did not stop him getting on with work in Cannock Chase, holding jobs fairs and successfully campaigning for the electrification of the Chase Line railway. He also got managers of rail company London Midland to hold one-to-one meetings with passengers to discuss the problems they had had with services.

And yet he seemed prone to attracting controversy. During the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, attended by David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Aidan Burley was at home complaining on Twitter that its homage to the NHS and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was 'leftie multicultural crap'. The Prime Minister called him 'idiotic'.

Even then, in the summer of 2012, Aidan Burley had already fallen a long way. He had been the darling of the Conservative Party in the 2010 election. His success in winning Cannock Chase from Labour represented the biggest swing to the Tories of anywhere in the country. Here was a former mining community that was prepared to have a Tory MP again after 18 years with Labour.

Mr Burley went on to propose to his long term girlfriend, the TV fashion presenter Helen Boyle on the roof of the Palace of Westminster, having hidden a bottle of champagne and two glasses among the gothic spires. That was six months before the infamous party.

It recently emerged that Mr Burley had bought the Nazi costume as part of a 'group endeavour'. He was the best man and was responsible for the entertainment. How much better might it have been to have just got Mark Fournier a Batman suit?

Instead Aidan Burley, an Oxford University educated MP who works in the same building where Winston Churchill delivered his 'we will fight them on the beaches speech', went for the uniform of the Waffen SS. The group went out with the groom wearing the costume and performing a Nazi salute. Members of the party raised a toast to the thought processes and ideology of the Third Reich and chanted the names of Hitler and Himmler.

It might have all faded as soon as their hangovers but for the presence of a freelance journalist and a photographer, who spoke to the group and established that Aidan Burley was an MP.

The story ended up in the Mail on Sunday. The rest was history. So would be Aidan Burley's political career, but not yet.

He apologised both in the Express & Star and in the Jewish Chronicle. And he attended the infamous Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau to learn about the horrors committed by the Nazis.

His relationship with Helen Boyle broke down in early 2012. It was not said to have been related to the then 'recent events' and no-one else was involved. That summer Mr Burley was revealed to have found love again with Jodie Jones. They went on to get engaged last summer.

The pressure on Councillor Jones in recent weeks, caused by the negative coverage in newspapers and by Aidan Burley's critics dragging her into the row, are believed to have played a part in his decision according to the political blogger Guido Fawkes, who said he discussed the matter with Mr Burley over a drink.

Mr Burley has still not commented on allegations that he misled Lord Gold's inquiry. In his only interview since Mark Fournier's sentencing, Mr Burley told the Express & Star his letter of apology to the Jewish Chronicle, in which he said he wished he had left the stag party earlier, was not at odds with his evidence to Lord Gold.

"I was the best man and I had duties including booking the hotel and the flights," he said. "A number of people agreed on what the fancy dress should be and I was tasked with buying it.

"The point I was trying to make to the Jewish Chronicle was that there was unacceptable behaviour by some of the other guests in trying to do a toast to the ideology of the Third Reich.

"That's where I wish I had left sooner.

"I regret the incident and I hope now we can put it behind us. I apologised then and I apologise again now for my role in it. The Conservative investigation concluded two years ago when I received my punishment by losing my job."

"It was a group endeavour. There were a number of people involved in where the stag party should be and that was covered in the report.

"The outfit was bought legally in London by me as best man and I take responsibility for that. We did not know that wearing a fancy dress outfit would be illegal in France. It's not an offence in this country.

"It was done in the spirit of mocking the Nazis. There was no malicious intent, no ideological motive, no desire to offend people. And that was borne out by the investigation by the French authorities."

Despite the Conservative party backing their 'stupid and offensive' MP and refusing to remove the whip, despite the support of Tories in Cannock Chase, Aidan Burley was not able to get back to normal. Almost every message he put out on Twitter was met with condemnation over that one night in Val Thorens. Jodie Jones resigned as chairman of the association ahead of a meeting to discuss his future.

Aidan Burley will remain a Conservative MP until next May. His party will be hoping that the fallout from one foolish night in France will not turn their biggest victory of 2010 into the worst defeat of 2015.