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Derek Laud

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Derek Laud (born 1964) is a contestant in the sixth (2005) series of the UK Big Brother TV series.

Laud became a researcher working for Conservative Members of Parliament in the mid-1980s. He fought for a seat on Wandsworth council's in the Graveney ward in May 1986, but won only 937 votes. He gained some notoriety as the only black member of the Monday Club, which had supported repatriation of immigrants. During his career, he has written speeches for several well-known Conservatives including Margaret Thatcher, Michael Heseltine and Alan Clark. Moving on from Westminster, he was employed in the City of London in equity finance.

He established a lobbying company Ludgate Laud in the early 1990s. As a parliamentary lobbyist he came to prominence during the cash for questions and 'cash for knighthoods' rows when he was investigated by Scotland Yard .

For the 1997 General Election he was selected as Conservative candidate for the seat of Tottenham, but stepped down shortly before the election citing "business reasons". There was press speculation that ths referred to Laud's drink-driving conviction in the US .

In 2001 he provided an alibi for his friends Neil and Christine Hamilton in their sexual assault case.

Laud had long been an enthusiastic fox hunter and in 1999 he became the first black homosexual Master of Foxhounds for the New Forest Hunt. His hunting activity was the subject of an anecdote told by Aldershot MP Gerald Howarth in March 2005. Howarth said that hunt saboteurs had challenged Laud that 100 years ago, the ancestors of the other huntsman would have been hunting him, and had responded by saying "100 years ago my ancestors would have been eating you." .

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