Jonathan Aitken

Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and British government minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999. He was born in Dublin to Sir William Aitken (himself a Conservative MP) and Penelope Aitken, daughter of John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. He is a great-nephew of newspaper magnate and war-time minister Lord Beaverbrook. He attended Eton College and read law at Christ Church, Oxford. He served as a war correspondent during the 1960s in Vietnam and Biafra, and has written a biography of Richard Nixon. He was also a journalist at Yorkshire Television from 1968 to 1970, presenting the regional news show Calendar.