Hayes was selected as the
Conservative candidate for
Harlow in Essex in 1981. He was Member of Parliament for Harlow from
1983. He served on the Health and Heritage
Select committees and was a
Parliamentary Private Secretary in the
Northern Ireland Office and the
Department of Environment. He introduced a number of Acts including the Sexual Offences Act, the Nurse Prescribing Act and the Video Recordings Act. Hayes lost his seat to
Bill Rammell, the
Labour Party candidate, in the
1997 general election.
Views Hayes was on the left on the Conservative Party, unlike most of the 1983 intake of Conservative MPs. Hayes opposed
capital punishment and fought for free dental and eye check-ups. On his blog, Hayes wrote, "I'm on the independent left of the Conservative Party. During the
Thatcher years I was regarded as a rebel. Heaven knows why, I just believed in social justice and pragmatism. But in those days that was about as popular as a rat sandwich." Once, when asked why he did not support
Blair's
New Labour endeavour, he replied "They're too right-wing". On the
BBC Question Time programme on 9 May 2013, he expressed the view that there was a real danger that the entire legal profession would be placed in the hands of
G4S within a couple of years.
Image Roth's Parliamentary Profiles says of Hayes: "[He] has never taken himself seriously, and therefore has not been taken seriously by others."
Betty Boothroyd, former
Speaker of the House of Commons, said of Hayes that "he would look very pretty as a French maid; I wish I had his curls."
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher personally disliked his beard and yellow ties, which he refused to change, when asked. Hayes was a regular contributor on television
quiz shows and talk shows, in particular,
The James Whale Show. For over four years he regularly appeared with
Charles Kennedy,
Ken Livingstone and
Michael Parkinson on a political discussion show on
LBC in London. Hayes appeared on comedy show
Have I Got News for You in 1992, on which he was unafraid to ridicule his own party and it was revealed that he was
Ken Livingstone's "favourite Tory". Hayes was frequently described as a "political buffoon", because of his willingness to subject himself to ridicule on various television and radio appearances. This included being fastened in the stocks and pelted with custard pies, and being whipped while dressed in fetish clothing. When the heavy metal group
Iron Maiden were having trouble getting permission to play in
Beirut, Hayes threw his weight behind them (one member was a constituent). "I have advised [the Foreign Office] the group is not a bad influence," he said. "In fact they are very good: I have all their albums." ==After Parliament==