{{short description|British madam}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Lindi St Clair | image = Marion-June-Crippen-cover.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Marian June Akin | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1952|8|11}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = | death_place = | othername = | spouse = | website = | occupation = Author <br /> Political campaigner (retired) }} '''Marian June Akin''' (born 11 August 1952), formerly known professionally as '''Lindi St Clair''' or '''Lindi St Claire''', is a British author, leader of the Corrective Party,<ref>Matthew Cole, "The Role of the Deposit in British Parliamentary Elections", ''Social Sciences Parliamentary Affairs'', Volume 45, Issue 1, pp. 77-91.</ref> and campaigner for prostitutes' rights.<ref>Fechner, Holly B. "Three Stories of Prostitution in the West: Prostitutes' Groups, Law and Feminist Truth", ''Journal of Gender & Law'', 26 (1994).</ref>
Originally a prostitute, but now retired and confirmed as a Christian, in 1993 St Clair accused the Inland Revenue in the High Court of England of being "Her Majesty's pimps",<ref>"Lindi St Clair strikes back against taxman: Miss Whiplash defiant over bankruptcy", [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/lindi-st-clair-strikes-back-against-taxman-miss-whiplash-defiant-over-bankruptcy-2325371.html ''The Independent'' (London), 27 May 1993].</ref> and living off immoral earnings, after its classification of prostitution as a trade in a high-profile court case.
St Clair stood for election to Parliament 11 times,<ref>Life After Debt by Peter Phillips, Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2010</ref> and once to the European Parliament.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boothroyd |first1=David |title=United Kingdom European Parliamentary Election results 1979-99: London |url=http://www.election.demon.co.uk/eplon.html |website=Election Demon |access-date=15 February 2022 |date=16 February 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030216102623/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/eplon.html |archive-date=16 February 2003 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Biography== thumb|Lindi St Clair, aka Miss Whiplash.Born in Hackney, London, Lindi St Clair's real name was Marian June Akin. She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire, where she went to school and at 14 years of age became a beatnik, then a mod, then a rocker and a biker, running away from home to London where she associated with the rockers and Hells Angels. She found employment in a few menial jobs before becoming a prostitute on the streets and, not drinking, smoking or taking drugs, was able to save enough money to buy a large freehold Victorian end-of-terrace house in Earls Court. Here she ran a lavish brothel frequented by British and international politicians and aristocrats as a high-profile madam and dominatrix.
For many years from the mid-1970s until her bankruptcy in 1992 (after the Inland Revenue pursued her for tax evasion),<ref>See case of ''Inland Revenue Commissioners v. Aken'' [1990] (1 WLR 1374).</ref><ref>''Taxation'', Volume 126 Ronald Staples. Taxation Pub. Co., 1991.</ref> St Clair offered sexual services from her own large four-storey house at Eardley Crescent in Earls Court, London. A successful professional dominatrix and madam, she once owned a yellow Rolls-Royce and had her own yacht, which she kept at Bray in Berkshire.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pilditch |first1=David |title=Miss Whiplash in river smash |url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/86930/Miss-Whiplash-in-river-smash |website=Express.co.uk |accessdate=29 July 2020 |language=en |date=28 February 2009}}</ref> In 1991 it emerged St Clair was renting Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont's basement flat in Notting Hill.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/28/sex-scandal-former-dominatrix-lindi-st-clair-in-car-crash-horror-115875-21159475/|title= Daily Mirror, 28 February 2009. |website= Daily Mirror |accessdate=26 March 2009 |date= 2009-02-28 }}</ref><ref>Great parliamentary scandals: five centuries of calumny, smear and innuendo by Matthew Parris, Kevin MacGuire. Robson, 2004</ref> At one time, she claimed that 252 Members of Parliament had been her clients.<ref name="The Independent 2">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/evidence-suggests-st-clair-planned-her-disappearance-1479782.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/evidence-suggests-st-clair-planned-her-disappearance-1479782.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Evidence suggests St Clair planned her disappearance|newspaper= The Independent|accessdate=26 March 2009 | location=London| first=Steve | last=Boggan | date=21 January 1993}}</ref> She has appeared on television and radio on many occasions, including on ''The Ruby Wax Show'' and ''The James Whale Show''.
Despite being taxed on her earnings, St Clair found when she attempted to register the companies "Prostitutes Ltd", "Hookers Ltd" and "Lindi St Clair (French Lessons) Ltd" that they were all rejected by the Registrar of Companies, and then "Lindi St Clair (Personal Services) Ltd" by the Attorney General.<ref>Briefcase on Company Law by Michael Ottley</ref>
St Clair spelled her surname "St Claire" between 1974 and 1985 and has also used the names Miss Whiplash, Carla Davis and Lily Lavender.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/7915645.stm|title= BBC News, 27 February 2009. |access-date=26 March 2009 | date=27 February 2009}}</ref>
==Corrective party== [[File:Miss-Whiplash-Correction-Party.jpg|thumb|St Clair campaigning as a prospective Member of Parliament on behalf of the Corrective Party for the Ribble Valley by-election in 1991.]]Described as the fastest growing fringe party in 1993, the Corrective Party was a radical British political party that campaigned for social justice, civil liberties, animal rights and sexual freedom.<ref>M. Cole, "The Role of the Deposit in British Parliamentary Elections", ''Parliamentary Affairs''. Hansard Society, 1992.</ref><ref>[http://www.by-elections.co.uk/newbury93/indcornew1a.jpg Corrective Party Manifesto] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407031946/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/newbury93/indcornew1a.jpg |date=2012-04-07 }}</ref><ref>Graham Scambler, Annette Scambler, ''Rethinking Prostitution: Purchasing Sex in the 1990s'', Routledge, 1997.</ref><ref>Antony Grey, ''Speaking of Sex: The Limits of Language'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 1993.</ref>
St Clair attempted to become elected to the House of Commons,<ref name="The Independent 2"/> in eleven by-elections, on one occasion threatening to expose the depraved lives of hundreds of MPs.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/miss-whiplash-faxes-byelection-promise-1475061.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/miss-whiplash-faxes-byelection-promise-1475061.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title=Miss Whiplash faxes by-election promise|location=London | work=The Independent | first=Steve | last=Boggan | date=25 February 1993}}</ref> The Corrective Party shared its election agent with the Monster Raving Loony Party.
In June 1991 she was involved in a controversy when Norman Lamont, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, was investigated for using taxpayers' money to handle the fall-out from press stories concerning 'Miss Whiplash' (not Lindi St Clair), who was using a flat he owned (the Treasury contributed £4,700 of the £23,000 bill which had been formally approved by the Head of the Civil Service and the Prime Minister).<ref>1992/93 HC 383 (Select Committee on Members Interests)</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2021}}
==Inland Revenue case== She accused the Inland Revenue of trying to live off immoral earnings when they asked her to pay £112,779.92 in back income tax, because they classed prostitution as a trade. She was pursued by tax inspector S. J. Pinkney, and her accountant claimed that as a result of the case she made two suicide attempts.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/lindi-st-clair-attempted-suicide-over-tax-demands-1479566.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/lindi-st-clair-attempted-suicide-over-tax-demands-1479566.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Lindi St Clair 'attempted suicide over tax demands'|newspaper= The Independent|accessdate=26 March 2009 | location=London | first=Steve | last=Boggan | date=20 January 1993}}</ref> She lost the case claiming, "The tax man is a pimp and the government is a pimp as well."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sawer |first1=Patrick |title=Tax man goes after sex workers and escort agencies to stop evasion |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/12035317/Tax-man-goes-after-sex-workers-and-escort-agencies-to-stop-evasion.html |website=Daily Telegraph |accessdate=13 June 2020 |date=5 December 2015}}</ref>
==Religious conversion== [[File:Lych gate and tower of Stoke Lacy church - geograph.org.uk - 1005871.jpg|thumb|left|Stoke Lacy Church in Herefordshire.]] On 27 February 2009 it was reported that St Clair had been rescued from her car and flown to hospital after the vehicle left a Herefordshire road near Risbury and landed upside down in a stream, trapping her for up to 24 hours.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/7915645.stm Miss Whiplash in river car ordeal]. ''BBC News Online''. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.</ref> This experience led her to embrace Christianity.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/8261078.stm|title=Crash 'led Miss Whiplash to God'|date=17 September 2009|work=BBC News|access-date=2009-09-21}}</ref> On 15 November 2009, having legally reverted to her birth name, she was confirmed by the Bishop of Hereford at Stoke Lacy church in Herefordshire.
==Bibliography== * Lindi St. Clair and Pamela Winfield, ''It's Only a Game: The Autobiography of Miss Whiplash'', Piatkus, 1992. {{ISBN|0-7499-1171-9}} * Lindi St. Clair and Pamela Winfield, ''Miss Whiplash: My Sensational Life Story'', Pan Books, 1993. {{ISBN|0-330-33080-2}}. {{clear}}
==References== {{Reflist|33em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:St Clair, Lindi}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:English female prostitutes Category:English Christians Category:Converts to Christianity Category:People from Bromyard Category:English brothel owners and madams Category:English dominatrices Category:British sex worker activists Category:Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom