The curious case of John Major's 'mistress'
Introduction

It's January 1993, John Major is Prime Minister and his government has embarked on a 'back to basics' crusade (his phrase) emphasising 'family values'. Meanwhile, the Westminster rumour-mill is working overtime. All sorts of stories -- some of them true; some of them complete flights of fantasy -- are doing the rounds about which prominent politician has been having sex with who.

In John Major's case, the tittle-tattle is being spread by his enemies on the Thatcherite right wing of his own party. People who have not forgiven the party's grandees for dumping Margaret Thatcher are plotting to undermine and remove her successor. One of their weapons is innuendo, and they have willing accomplices in the British media. John Major, it is being suggested, is a hypocrite. At the same time as masterminding his morally-righteous 'back to basics' campaign and promoting his own image as a family man, he has been conducting a long-running affair.

The gossip-mongers were right about the affair, but wrong about the woman. The innuendo said it was the Downing Street caterer, Clare Latimer. In fact, as was finally revealed a decade later, it was the former Conservative minister, Edwina Currie. The affair, which lasted for three years, was over by 1993, but the rumours continued to fly.

I was editor of the New Statesman at the time and co-authored a piece on the subject. Its intention was to turn the spotlight on what we called the 'rumour, gossip and nudge-and-a-wink innuendo' of the British political scene. Although the article made no allegations against him (indeed, in hindsight, we were far too circumspect in holding back the information at our disposal), he sued for libel.

More than that. With a sheer brass cheek that only an accomplished adulterer, liar and hypocrite could pull off, he sued not only myself and my co-author, the magazine and its publisher, but also its printers, its distributors and the major retail outlets. In short, he came at us with the legal equivalent of a Desert Storm.

It never got as far as court. The costs of the case all but bankrupted the New Statesman, and after struggling on for the next three years it was eventually bought by Geoffrey Robinson, the future Paymaster General in the 1997 Labour government.

That is another story. Here you can read about the curious case of John Major's 'mistress' as it was told at the time. Subject to demand (and the advice of m'learned friends), I'll be adding other material as I find the time.

Steve Platt
June 2004

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