Eric Evlyn Illsley (born 9 April 1955) is a former British Labour politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley Central from 1987 until 2011.
When he pleaded guilty to three counts of false accounting on 11 January 2011, he became the first sitting Member of Parliament to be convicted of a criminal offence in the scandal.
When former Northern Ireland Secretary Roy Mason announced his retirement in October 1986, Illsley was nominated by the NUM in the selection of a Labour candidate for Barnsley Central.
He was viewed as being on the left of the Labour Party while his main opponent was Ronnie Fisher, a Barnsley Borough councillor identified as a moderate.
On 19 June 2009 he was one of dozens of MPs identified by The Daily Telegraph as having made "phantom" claims for council tax on his parliamentary expenses, receiving thousands of pounds more than he was entitled to.
[13] Illsley stated his intention to resign as an MP before sentencing, and on 8 February he was formally appointed Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, vacating his seat.