Major and Currie to speak of affair
John Major’s ex-lover Edwina Currie struck early today in what could be a day of verbal clashes as the pair speak publicly for the first time since their affair was revealed.
Mrs Currie has hit out at comments by the former Tory Prime Minister that the four-year fling was the “most shameful” event of his life.
She said the words were “cruel to everyone concerned” and was adamant the pair had a “very close relationship”.
It follows the shock revelation on Saturday by Mrs Currie that they had an affair between 1984 and 1988, when she was a junior health minister and Mr Major was in the whips’ office.
In a fresh interview with The Times in England today, which broke the story through the serialisation of her diaries, Mrs Currie said: “This was not a fling. This was not a fly-by-night affair.
“If he was that bloody ashamed of it he could have ended it anytime. He didn’t.”
In the latest twist, Mrs Currie claims Mr Major tried to revive the relationship after it ended and the pair continued to have late night chats, including during the political demise of Margaret Thatcher that eventually saw Mr Major emerge as leader.
She also criticises her former lover for offering her the “crap job” of prisons minister after he was returned in the 1992 General Election and tells of her fear that Mr Major may have denied the affair, once public, and she would have to explain it in court.
In her diaries, still serialised in The Times, she said she warned Mr Major not to get too close to Mrs Thatcher when she was losing power and revealed that the former PM considered voice coaching so he could sound “less strangulated and squeaky”.
Explaining why he continued to contact her after the end of the affair, Mrs Currie writes: “He said he liked talking to me; I was amusing and nice, and underneath I was as soft as butter.”
Mrs Currie is due to give a series of media interviews later today before honouring an appointment with a writers’ group.
And Mr Major is due to give a speech in the US for a charity of which he is patron.
Both of today’s engagements were planned before the affair came to light.
Mr Major will answer press questions at a news conference in Dallas, Texas, hours before he is due to deliver a lecture at a charity dinner.
Organisers said they were expecting a media “feeding frenzy” but promised the former Prime Minister would make a statement about his personal life.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Currie said she would take questions at the end of her speaking engagement, with the Nottingham Writers’ Club, but would not take press questions.
She was believed to have agreed to do at least two broadcast interviews earlier in the day.
Her daily revelations in The Times have triggered an angry backlash, with former Tory government minister David Mellor branding her “a cheap trollop” and Home Secretary David Blunkett warning that excessive interest in the private lives of public figures could damage British politics.
Both she and her former lover have issued statements, with Mr Major speaking of his shame over the affair and Mrs Currie denying rumours that she had another fling, with former Conservative Party candidate Peter Clarke.
Her spokeswoman said she “categorically” denied having ever met Mr Clarke, 53, who is married with two sons.
Mr Major was said to be ready to face the inevitable questions about his private life, according to organisers of the charity dinner, in aid of Mercy Ships.
Mr Major – who with his wife Norma is a patron of the charity, which uses hospital ships to help the world’s poor – agreed to speak at the 500-seat, invitation-only dinner six months ago.
A hastily-arranged press conference will be held just hours before the event at the city’s Fairmont Hotel.
Giles Hudson, a press officer with A Larry Ross Communications, the Texas firm organising the event, said: “He knows he’ll get questioned about his personal life and everything will be answered at the news conference. He will have an answer ready to go.”
Diane Rickard, a spokeswoman for Mercy Ships, added: “We have talked with his office and he is going ahead with the press conference.
“He will have to make some sort of statement of all that has happened in his personal life but I think that will be a very short statement.
“We are working with him as he develops that statement.
“It could easily become a feeding frenzy and he understands that better than we do. I’m sure he’ll be quite adept at handling it.”
Don Stephens, founder and chief executive officer of Mercy Ships, said: “To have an international figure like John Major assist us lends importance and credibility to the work we are doing around the world.”
