So how many ways to love an MP? One backbencher's raunchy Shakespeare sonnets cause a stir

Mr Cohen started composing sonnets when he went for 'therapy' to cure him of the boredom induced by sitting on the Commons backbenches for a quarter of a century.

He has now written more than 200, the contents of which have shocked his fellow MPs and may cause a stir in his constituency of Leyton, East London.

Shall we compare thee to a summer's bard? Harry Cohen MP puts his time on the backbenches to good use with 200 sonnets under his belt and counting...

Some are bordering on pornographic, with references to sex, different lovemaking positions and 'femmes fatales'.

Now 58-year-old Mr Cohen is seeking a publisher. One of his favourite sonnets is called Love? and begins:

'So, how many ways to love somebody?

Front, back, side, top, bottom, up, down. All ways

Sit, stand, bend, crouch. With or without Johnny

In an intense stage or a steady phase

Stretch it out. Indeed, stretch as far as can

Linger a lot, though that's hard for a man

Take it as far as one can ascertain

Perhaps quite often, coming back again...'

Another, called Poem Noir, includes the lines:

'Promise of a peak moment of pleasure

With femme fatale, shapely, in tight black dress

Intense risk with no idea whatsoever

Of outcome, to deflect, from this excess

Maybe violence threatened, or contempt

Loathing amongst the inconsistencies

Predator or hunted from this attempt

On my knees uncovering mysteries...'

The MP's poems conform to the traditional sonnet format - made popular by William Shakespeare.

'I was feeling a bit down after 25 years on the backbenches and needed to find something more creative,' said Mr Cohen.

'I have been doing it for only a short while but have already written more than 200. Shakespeare wrote only 154 - though I accept mine aren't up to his standard.'

But where did he find inspiration? 'Ah, that all comes from my imaginary love life,' added Mr Cohen. 'They are an expression of my psychological state, maybe I'm slightly potty.'

His wife Ellen has no objection to his saucy scribblings. 'I may have to censor some of them but I'm pretty confident about that area, so it does not worry me,' she said.