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A TOP Tory politician who claimed marriage could only work ­between “one man and one woman” is today exposed as a cheating husband.

Ambitious MP Bob Blackman had an 11-year affair behind devoted wife Nicola’s back, his former mistress reveals.

Carol Shaw tells how he used to sneak away from home for regular Friday afternoon romps with her when they were both Tory councillors.

She says they also had sex in his marital bed and at an office where he worked.

Carol, 62, kept a lid on their affair until the outspoken right-winger controversially waded into the debate on gay marriage earlier this month.

After Blackman, 58, insisted ­marriage had to be “between one man and one woman” his infuriated secret ex-lover decided enough was enough.

“I couldn’t believe a man who had an affair with me for over 11 years could have the cheek to preach about the sanctity of marriage,” she told the Sunday Mirror.

“You have to be squeaky clean to do that and he has made a mistake.

“Bob is an absolute hypocrite. He talks about marriage being between one man and one woman... but why does he not practice what he preaches?

“More than once I asked about his wife and I got the impression one day he might leave her, because he said he could love two people at the same time.”

(Image: Bob Blackman)

The MP – who proudly displays snaps of himself with David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson on his website – ­married Nicola in 1988.

But Carol says he began his affair with her only a year later when they worked together on Brent Council in North West London.

Carol recalls: “I was smitten from the word go. I found him intelligent, very ­attractive. He knew a lot about politics and I was keen to learn. I would have to say it was love at first sight.”

After weeks of flirting, she found herself at a function with him and he ended up seeing her back to her flat.

“That’s when it all happened. I didn’t think really,” she says. “I was just happy to see him and I remember we were outside my home and I said to him ‘Do you want to come in?’.

“He said, ‘Of course I want to come in’.

QUICK

“We got in the front room and then we threw all our clothes on the floor and ran into the bedroom. It was very quick. I’d imagined something more romantic and I wanted more sensitivity like going out for dinner, but it didn’t happen like that.”

But it was the start of an affair that brought Carol little satisfaction in the bedroom of her flat.

“Bob was a terrible lover but I was madly in love with him,” she says. “He wasn’t one of these four-times-a-night lovers. He’d never try anything new. He would just say ‘I haven’t got much time’. He just wanted to get into it.

“It was once and then he would fall asleep. He would snore and I would have to wake him up.”

An admirer of former Tory PM Margaret Thatcher, Blackman would frequently tell Carol of his burning desire to climb the political ladder.

But whenever she mentioned his wife, who was also a Brent Tory councillor, he changed the subject.

“I asked him if he loved his wife, but he would never commit himself,” says Carol. “It wouldn’t look good for his political career if he left her.

“He was very ambitious then. He ­wanted to be an MP, and he believes he has what it takes to go on to become a Minister and eventually go right to the top. Boris ­Johnson is his absolute idol.”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Carol was always wary of their affair, which ended in 2000, being discovered. She recalls worrying when he asked her to go to a charity cricket match with him but says she couldn’t stop herself going along because she was so infatuated.

“He was very intelligent and knew about politics. Sex wasn’t much, but

who cared? But for him that was all-important.”

The pair only twice had sex away from Carol’s home in Willesden, North West London... once in his marital bed and once at an office where he worked for BT in Milton Keynes. Carol says he rang her on a whim when he was lonely there one night.

“I was scared of night driving but he wanted me to go there,” she says. “If he cared so much about me, he shouldn’t have asked me to do that.

“I phoned him on the mobile and said ‘I am lost, I can’t make it’ and he said, ‘You will’. He gave me the directions... he was desperate to see me.

“When I got there he was waiting downstairs for me and he took me upstairs. They had a hostel-like arrangement there and he had his own room.

“He took me there and we had sex. I woke up in the morning and I said that I should go and he said, ‘Yes it’s better before anyone else gets up’. He never paid me compliments. He just said, ‘I love the way you kiss.’ He was mean with his emotions.”

A Tottenham Hotspur fan, Blackman would call Carol on his way to games and often stayed on the phone for two hours. Carol says: “He would say, ‘I miss you’ or ‘Can I see you tonight?’ But I would often have something on as I didn’t want to see him too much.”

She says that on the rare occasions they did go out together he was careful to never show her any affection in public. “The nearest I got was putting my arm in his arm when he took me out for a meal for my birthday,” she says.

“He had relaxed a bit and had a drink and forgot we weren’t supposed to be an item. It was strange it happened. That’s why I ended up keeping the photos.”

Carol says Blackman, who become MP for London seat Harrow East in 2010, would never buy her gifts... then recalls how she bumped into his wife at an event and they began talking about the new earrings she was wearing.

“I was madly jealous,” says Carol. “I remember telling Nicola the earrings didn’t really suit her, which was cruel, looking back.

“I asked her to try on the gold ones I was wearing. Nicola said they looked very nice on her. So we agreed to swop.

“I remember telling Bob I was now the owner of the earrings he had bought for his wife. He didn’t say anything... but I could tell he was not best pleased.”

For years, Carol clung to the hope that he would leave his wife. But eventually she realised she needed to move on.

“I remember one time he was late. He must have rushed his food because when he got here he vomited all over the loo and didn’t clear it up,” says Carol, who is still a Brent councillor.

“That really put me off. He was so egotistic and he didn’t think something like that would put someone off him. He didn’t even apologise.

“He was annoyed when it all ended. He didn’t want anything to interrupt his steps up the political ladder and I could have been a fly in the ointment.

“He was more worried about that and his public image than me. I do have a conscience about it all now... and I know I would not have wanted to be in his wife’s position. Looking back I was mad, but I was infatuated.”

“Eleven years is long time to carry on an affair. It’s not like it was a one-night stand. He must have been desperately miserable in his marriage... or he found me irresistible. I hope it’s the latter.”

Blackman’s wife is listed as his office manager in the Commons Members’ Register of Financial Interests. They live in a detached home in Wembley, North West London.

When the Sunday Mirror tried to ask him about his relationship with Carol he slammed the door, saying: “I don’t wish to speak to you.”