Returned to Parliament at the general election in 1997, Fiona Jones was one of the “Blair Babes”, the large group of new female Labour MPs.

She was a low-profile back-bencher — even having to endure some media criticism for failing to make her maiden speech — until 1999, when she was convicted of electoral fraud. She achieved the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first MP to be excluded from the house for that crime since 1883.

Although the conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal within weeks, her reputation had suffered irrevocably, and she lost her seat at the general election in 2001. The last years of her life were marked by financial struggles and alcoholism.

Fiona Elizabeth Ann Hamilton was born in 1957, the only child of Roman Catholic parents. Her faith was an important element in her life, and as an MP she always voted in line with its teachings and was a member of Labour Pro-Life.

She was brought up in Fazak-erley, Liverpool, where her father, Fred Hamilton, worked as a production manager for a drug company. He was an active Labour supporter and was a friend of the left-wing MP Eric Heffer, who gave the young Fiona a copy of that classic of working-class literature, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Inspired by its socialist fire Jones was soon also campaigning for the Labour Party.

While working as a freelance TV researcher she met a radio journalist, Chris Jones, and moved with him to Lincoln-shire, where they were married in 1982.

In 1990 Jones was elected to West Lindsey District Council. She stood unsuccessfully for the safe Tory seat of Gainsborough and Horncastle in the 1992 election, and became the secretary of the constituency’s Labour Party. At the 1997 general election she won the Tory seat of Newark for Labour with a majority of 3,016. She was the constituency’s first Labour MP for 18 years.

She spent a couple of unobtrusive years at Westminster, during which time she set up a football team for female MPs. In 1999, however, she was convicted of having spent almost three times the allowance on her electoral campaign and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. On appeal the conviction was promptly quashed. Jones returned to the House and, at last, made her maiden speech. The damage, however, had been done. She believed that a vindictive campaign was being waged against her by “Old Labour” supporters in her constituency who were bitter about her success.

Accused of being a ruthless careerist who had conformed to new Labour merely for her own gain, she insisted that she was still a true socialist, who would, she joked, nationalise land and the banks if she could.

Jones felt that she never lived down the electoral fraud episode, and could never shake off the implication that she had “got away with it”.

She launched a civil case against Nottinghamshire Police for damages, but it was thrown out in December 2005, leaving her with £45,000 costs.

Jones is survived by her husband and their two sons.

Fiona Jones, Labour MP for Newark, 1997-2001, was born on February 27, 1957. She died of alcoholic liver disease on January 28, 2007, aged 49