BRITAIN: The former British prime minister, Mr John Major, was keeping his own counsel last night about his four-year affair with his former Conservative Party colleague, Mrs Edwina Currie, after she attacked his "atrocious" behaviour and "evil" Back to Basics political campaign which sought to emphasise the virtue of family values.
Mr Major was attending a charity dinner in Dallas, Texas, and, despite earlier expectations, was saying nothing about the affair.
Mrs Currie held a series of broadcast interviews yesterday in which she launched a blistering attack on her former lover and his government. She insisted he wanted the affair, which began in 1984 when he was a government whip and she was a backbencher, to continue but she ended it in 1988 when Mr Major got a job in Margaret Thatcher's government.
Mrs Currie, who had been sacked as a health minister, said although she did not want to end their relationship it was "running practical risks", particularly because the IRA were "chasing us around". She said she believed that most of the main actors in her diaries were now consigned to political "oblivion" and their careers would not be harmed. Asked about Mr Major's reaction to the book, Mrs Currie stopped short of calling him a hypocrite.
"You may well say that, but I couldn't possibly comment would probably be the fairest remark to make." But she delivered stinging criticism of her ex-lover's treatment of former Downing Street caterer Clare Latimer and of his Back to Basics campaign. Ms Latimer won a libel action after wrongly being accused of having an affair with Mr Major. It has been suggested that the then prime minister encouraged her to sue to hide his affair with Mrs Currie.
Commenting on the way Mr Major is said to have treated Ms Latimer, Ms Currie said: "I think the revelations of the last few days and the way in particularly he treated Clare Latimer, which I think was outrageous, I think that has put paid to any lingering regard or affection or admiration.
"He behaved in an atrocious fashion and it's a shame. And it wasn't just me. He had the opportunity when he formed the government in December 1990 when he was elected to succeed Margaret Thatcher, he formed the first government for a quarter of a century that had absolutely no women in.
"He perpetuated, in those thoughtless statements, that thoughtless behaviour, the picture of Conservative governments which has persisted till now, which is that they only accept heterosexual, white males as MPs and they think nobody else can rule the country, and that is such rubbish."
Mr Major launched his Back to Basics campaign in answer to the increasing tide of scandal which was damaging his government. But the campaign led to the downfall of several ministers involved in extra-marital relationships. Mrs Currie said: "I think the worst thing that ever happened, for which he was entirely responsible, was Back to Basics."