It was after this case that Attlee set up a committee to look at the problem of

It was after this case that Attlee set up a committee to look at the problem of middlemen and consultants. It reported in October 1949 that “common sense and vigilance” were the only necessary safeguards against corruption, an observation of blinding futility. IAN HARVEY – 1958 “Tory MP Caught in Bush with Guardsman”, the headlines would proclaim today “pounds 5 fine on Ian Harvey. He will pay to end of life,” rumbled the Times on 11 December 1958 They were right Ian Harvey was a minister. Fined for indecency with a young Coldstream Guard, he was the first in a depressing roll call of Macmillan’s ministers brought down by scandal.Harvey had started playing with fire and guardsmen five years before becoming MP for Harrow East in 1950.

Now, living in fashionable Trevor Square, off Hyde Park, he was well placed to pick up troopers from the Knightsbridge barracks of the Household Cavalry. From a young age he had known he was homosexual, but ambition had dictated pragmatism and in 1949 he had married Clare Mayhew, sister of the Labour MP and broadcaster Christopher Mayhew, now a peer. The union satisfied his constituency supporters, who, as he recalled in his autobiography, To Fall Like Lucifer, “thought it was a mistake to have a candidate who was bachelor and over 30.” Glamorous Mrs Harvey was wheeled in. It worked, and the following year her husband was elected MP for Harrow East.Mr Harvey did not let marriage or political office interrupt his forays into Hyde Park. “I discovered a very convenient place near the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens. JM Barrie, unlike some of his predecessors, would hardly have approved.

Peter Pan had his back to us so I could not be accused of polluting the young.”Harvey was taking a great risk. In 1958 the maximum sentence for any form of homosexual conduct was five years in prison. “In view of my undoubted political ambitions this conduct could well be adjudged as verging on insanity. Every time it was over I pretended to myself that this was definitely the last time I knew perfectly well… exactly what would happen if I were caught.” He would be back in his usual spot the very next night.Born in Surrey in 1914, Harvey enjoyed a comfortable middle-class upbringing. He attended Fettes College in Scotland and Christ Church College, Oxford, where he was President of the Union.

After a distinguished wartime career he went on to a successful job in advertising and wrote a noted book, Techniques of Persuasion. He moved into politics, serving his apprenticeship in local government. His wartime service enabled him to make his mark in Parliament as a member of a Commons Select Committee whose advice reinforced draconian punishments for practising homosexuals in the armed forces. He rapidly became known as one of Macmillan’s abler young supporters. In 1956 he was a popular choice as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Supply.