Conflict of interest Shortly after he became a junior minister in November 1951, Marples resigned as managing director of Marples Ridgway but continued to hold some 80% of the firm's shares. When he was made Minister of Transport in October 1959, Marples undertook to sell his shareholding in the company as he was now in clear breach of the House of Commons' rules on conflicts of interest. Marples' first attempt to sell his shares was blocked by
Reginald Manningham-Buller, the
Attorney-General, on the grounds that he was using his former business partner, Reginald Ridgway, as an agent to ensure that he could buy back the shares upon leaving office. by this time, his shares had come to be worth between £350,000 and £400,000. Marples Ridgway built the
Hammersmith flyover in London at a cost of £1.3 million, immediately followed by building the
Chiswick flyover. including the £4.1 million extension of the M1 into London, referred to as the Hendon Urban Motorway at the time.
Use of prostitutes When
Lord Denning made his 1963 investigation into the security aspects of the
Profumo affair and the rumoured affair between the
Minister of Defence,
Duncan Sandys and the
Duchess of Argyll, he confirmed to Macmillan that a rumour that Ernest Marples was in the habit of using prostitutes appeared to be true. In early 2020, the rumours were corroborated by broadcaster and investigative journalist
Tom Mangold, based on the diaries of Lord Denning's then-secretary, Thomas Critchley. The diaries reported the transport minister's fetish for being whipped while dressed in women's clothing, as described in great detail by one of the prostitutes who had provided these services to Marples, and confirmed at the time by her detailed knowledge of the interior of Marples' home where the events took place. The story was suppressed and did not appear in Denning's final report.
Flight to Monaco Early in 1975, Marples fled to
Monaco. The flight came at a time when Marples was facing problems on several fronts. Tenants of his block of flats in Harwood Court, Upper Richmond Road,
Putney, London, were demanding that he repair serious structural faults and had threatened legal action. He was being sued for £145,000 by the
Bankers Trust merchant bank in relation to an agreement made with the French company Ernest Marples et Cie. and he had been convicted of
drinking and driving for which he received a one-year ban and a £45 fine. His departure came in the wake of the failure of a plan to avoid paying tax on his properties by involving a Liechtenstein-based company with which he had been involved for more than ten years. In November 1977, he paid £7,600 to the British government in settlement of his breach of
exchange control regulations, following which he made a return to London where, with agreement from HMRC, he was allowed to stay with friends for six weeks. In his will, he left property valued at £388,166. He is buried in a family plot in
Southern Cemetery, Manchester. ==Popular culture==