Harvey Proctor Protests Too Much

The appearance yesterday at a press conference of his own devising by former Tory MP Harvey Proctor grabbed headlines, and also perhaps garnered some sympathy for a man who has faced suspicion, questioning and indeed uncertainty over allegations that he was part of an organised Westminster paedophile ring back in the day. But there is good reason for the Police and media to remain sceptical.

Proctor’s statement contains this assertion: “Those Labour Members of Parliament who have misused parliamentary privilege and their special position on these matters should apologise. They have behaved disgracefully, especially attacking dead parliamentarians who cannot defend themselves and others and they should make amends. They are welcome to sue me for libel. In particular, Mr Tom Watson, M.P. should state, outside the protection of the House of Commons, the names of ex Ministers and ex M.P.s who he feels are part of the so called alleged Westminster rent boy ring”.

However, as campaigner Ian Pace has pointed out, “In none of these debates have any of the leading campaigning MPs – Tom Watson, Simon Danczuk, John Mann, Sarah Champion from Labour, ex-MPs John Hemming and Tessa Munt from the Liberal Democrats, Zac Goldsmith or Tim Loughton from the Conservatives, or Caroline Lucas from the Greens – said anything to my knowledge which could identify an MP or other prominent figure, nor anything which could not be safely repeated outside of the House of Commons”. And a majority of those are not representing Labour.

Pace concludes that Proctor is maliciously trying to blame Watson. That may raise a few eyebrows, but it must be remembered that Proctor was not the most sympathetic character to grace the Commons: his interests included being chairman of the right-wing Monday Club’s “Immigration and repatriation committee”. Yes, “repatriation”.

Indeed, he co-authored a number of publications on the subject of immigration, including the interestingly titled “Immigration, Repatriation and the CRE” in 1981. Even the BBC conceded “Mr Proctor also sits on the executive of the right-wing Monday Club and has expressed controversial views on immigration”.

Proctor resigned as an MP after the Sunday People ran a story that he had taken part in “spanking” sessions with rent boys at his London flat. This had included “a schoolboy punishment ritual in which the rent boys were required to dress in shorts and be punished for imagined offences such as truancy and fighting in class”.

The argument put forward by his solicitor David Napley at Proctor’s trial back in May 1987 that “If this man had performed equal acts of gross indecency with a female prostitute under the age of 21 he would have committed no offence” may sound convincing at first, but the same might have been said about Peter Morrison, who was regarded at the time of his fall from grace in 1991 as a paedophile - and still is.

Harvey Proctor may well be innocent of all those offences alleged by others. But he has done his cause no favours by trying to dump the blame for his predicament on Tom Watson, and his Parliamentary career as one of the rabid right must not be forgotten.