It was at this meeting, of course, that Robertson tells us that the Home Secretary then instructed the police to find another reason to prosecute Ward if it couldn’t be under the Official Secrets Act. Denning phrases it slightly differently in his report, however, with the Home Secretary asking the Commissioner if there was interest from the police, to which the reply was that there might be grounds for a criminal prosecution of Ward if the police were able to get all the details. The outcome of the conversation, according to Denning, was that the Commissioner then thought further about prosecuting Ward. Which of course led to a CID investigation into allegations that Ward was living off immoral earnings, and the subsequent interviews with Keeler during which her statement said she had had intercourse with Profumo. The investigation also allowed for Ward’s phone to be tapped and the questioning of those he knew and worked with.
Once the investigation into Ward, and questioning of his friends and patients, began, understandably, Ward was concerned, although Denning describes the actions Ward then took as out of the ordinary within his report. However, if it were your own reputation and livelihood being threatened, you might not find such actions unusual. Ward telephoned and then met the PM’s Private Secretary to discuss his concerns. During this meeting, Denning says that the main objective of the visit was stop the police inquiry and to blackmail the government by threatening that, unless the inquiries were dropped, he would expose Profumo’s affair with Keeler. Although it’s worth noting that Ward was never charged with blackmail, and this is just Denning’s opinion, even if it is stated as if it were fact.
Ward also wrote of his concerns to the Home Secretary and received a reply that made it clear that the police do not act under his direction.
However, Denning tells us that Ward continued to send letters that eventually led to questions about security being raised by Harold Wilson and resulted in Macmillan instructing the Lord Chancellor to begin an inquiry on 30 May. It was the knowledge of this upcoming investigation that led to Profumo’s confession that he did sleep with Keeler and that his statement to the House had been untrue. And thus, on 21 June, Denning was asked to undertake his inquiry.
Towards the end of his report, Denning turns once again to defend the Security Service, whose role in the Profumo Affair, he reminds the reader, was only to protect the country against Russia and its agents. He concludes that the Service kept to this role and considered that the moral (or immoral) behaviour of Profumo was not their concern. And while Profumo’s character defect (just the one in his apparently flawless personality) may have made him a security risk at one time, when the security services discovered the information, Profumo had ended the affair and Ivanov had returned to Russia.34
Denning examines all the contact the Security Service had with Ward in 1961 and 1962, when the Service decided Ward was not a security risk in himself. It did, however, take steps to warn Profumo about his relationship with Ivanov and consider if Ward offered a way in to Captain Ivanov, who might be convinced to defect. Any criticism of the Service for its conduct over this period is wrong, says Denning, because during 1962 the Security Service was watching Ward and Ivanov and keeping the Foreign Office informed.35
Denning continues his examination of the events in 1963, which is when he believes that on 28 and 29 January the Security Service first learnt of an association between Profumo and Keeler. Here Denning dismisses Ward’s claims that he had told the Service as early as July 1961. Instead, he is content that since Ivanov had left the country, and Profumo was not sharing a mistress with the Russian and that there was no evidence that information had passed from Profumo to Keeler, the Service was correct to accept there was no risk to security.
There was also no security risk the next month, when on 7 February, it was reported Keeler had reported in her police statement that Ward had asked her to discover atomic secrets. He says the Security Service dismissed Keeler’s claims.36
Denning reported that he was happy with how the Security Service had handled any risks and reported to those concerned, taking all reasonable steps to protect the country.37 He stated that there was no evidence to support that there had been a security leak.
Having established that there was no security risk, Denning does ask who can be held responsible for what had happened. He considers the culpability of the Security Service, the police and the press but concludes that ultimately Profumo should bear the primary responsibility because he entered into the affair with Keeler and lied about it in the House of Commons.
And while Denning may have held prejudiced, misguided and even incorrect opinions on the Profumo Affair, on this one point at least, he was spot on.
Chapter 19
Did Profumo Fell Supermac and the Conservatives?
The Profumo Affair has often been blamed for the fall not just of Harold Macmillan but also of the government he left behind. But isn’t it weird that a premier could be so affected by something clearly not of his doing? What kind of government can be toppled by a single minister and his affair with a little-respected woman?
We’ve seen recently how a party can turn on its Prime Minister if it is believed their continued leadership could bring the government into disrepute with the public. The first signal that Profumo’s deceit had ultimately ended Macmillan’s career as PM came directly after the debate in the House on 17 June. As he left, Macmillan was said to have looked visibly broken, while American Ambassador David Bruce reported back that Macmillan could prevent the Conservatives being re-elected. Journalist Christopher Booker called Macmillan’s showing in the House the most ‘broken’ of his career and former Parliamentary Private Secretary Anthony Barber thought the PM was ‘crestfallen’.1
And Macmillan certainly knew he had fared badly, telling Rab Butler he was heartbroken and finding himself joined only by his son Maurice and his son-in-law Julian Amery in the Smoking Room after having left the Chamber. The Gallup polls also signalled problems. Only 23 per cent of voters polled thought Macmillan should remain PM and showed that he was at his lowest point in popularity. Colleagues recalled that during the Profumo Affair, the Prime Minister appeared aged and friendless.2
Despite all this, and the rumours that the 1922 Committee were discussing his replacement, Macmillan himself told Butler that he didn’t want to resign over just the Profumo Affair.3
The scandal was, of course, not an event that happened in isolation. It came after other spy scandals had dominated the headlines. And it came at a time when Macmillan was already getting older and perhaps therefore seen to be ‘out of touch’ with a society keen to modernise; after all, the ‘Swinging 60s’ were coming, whether the older members of society were keen on a new social order or not. Horne says that 1963 made for a ‘hysterical’ atmosphere for the Profumo story to break and that the British people were all too ready to accept scandalous stories about anyone.4
Macmillan’s apparent belief in Profumo’s denial of the affair with Keeler was part of his downfall. When the truth came out, Macmillan looked stupid for not realising, or knowing, that his minister was lying to him, his colleagues and the country. But Macmillan desperately wanted Profumo’s version of his innocent acquaintance with Keeler to be true. Against the backdrop of disappointing security lapses, Macmillan was keen for Profumo to be proven to be an upstanding example of the Tory Party. Profumo’s strong denial, and the following up of that with legal actions for libel against foreign press that ran the story, including Paris Match and Il Tempo, helped Macmillan see what he wanted to. Horne says that Macmillan’s wife Dorothy also thought it was unlikely that Profumo would stoop to the depths of perjury to defend himself. How ironic that Keeler was so criticised, and legally pursued, for doing the exact same thing as Profumo, and not to save her own skin, but simply to comply with what she’d been asked by others that it suited.
Horne says that Macmillan wrote in his memoirs saying he truly believed Profumo, because in his eyes, a statement made in the House, and backed up by those made in a libel court, could be nothing but true.5
Why was Macmillan’s response to the Profumo scandal so important and ultimately so damning? It’s a matter of timing.
The public’s opinion of exactly when Macmillan found out that Profumo had lied and the potential security issue that went along with that put Macmillan between a rock and a hard place. If Macmillan did only find out, as his memoirs suggest, on 4 February, then it seems he was either kept in the dark deliberately by those closest to him (or even by Hollis, who may have felt he wasn’t welcome at Macmillan’s office with any more spy revelations) or that the people he employed to monitor security were similarly fooled. What kind of Prime Minister doesn’t know what’s going on in his own government? And what kind of government keeps things from its Prime Minister?
But what if Macmillan did know that Profumo was lying when he made his statement? It would make him a canny leader, yes, aware of his ministers’ every move, but also one who supported a lie from a colleague to protect the establishment, and ultimately his own job.
Is it likely Macmillan did know? Horne says that Macmillan’s Private Office had received a tip-off from Private Secretary Philip de Zulueta towards the end of 1962. The story goes that Zulueta had considered renting from Astor the cottage next door to Ward’s, but had been warned off by an acquaintance, who had told him about Ward and his Russian connections. In the book An Affair of State, Knightley and Kennedy say that Zulueta actually did rent a cottage there, and that Macmillan would visit and therefore be familiar with Ward.6 Zulueta also warned Hugh Fraser, the air minister at the time, who was also thinking about renting a cottage at Cliveden. Gossip about the sort of things that went on at Cliveden, and with whom, may well have been rife among the Commons and the Lords.
William Shepherd, MP for Cheadle, Cheshire, also informed Macmillan that there were problems with the behaviour and morality of his ministers. In October 1962, he was approached by Ward in the Kenya Coffee House. Ward had overhead Shepherd and his guests, who were Hungarian refugees, discussing the missile crisis. Ward wanted Shepherd to meet Ivanov, so that he could hear for himself a Soviet viewpoint, and fixed a drinks date at his flat. Shepherd attended and there he met Ivanov, Keeler and Rice-Davies. Since he had close links with MI5 and the police, after the meeting, where Shepherd had inevitably clashed with Ivanov over his political views, the MP decided to find out more about the group and its dynamics. He recognised Keeler from his own visits to Murray’s, and knew about the rumours linking her to Profumo; he also suspected that that’s where the war minister knew Keeler from. But now he realised that Keeler also moved in the same circles as Ivanov, he thought it was inappropriate. Since Ward had mentioned that he and Ivanov were about the meet Iain Macleod, the Leader of the House of Commons, Shepherd told Macleod he was implicated in this situation too. Macleod wrote to the Home Secretary and spoke to the Foreign Secretary. Shepherd, meanwhile, met with MI5 and told them what he knew and wrote to Macmillan warning of further possible scandals affecting the party’s reputation. Macmillan directed him to Chief Whip Martin Redmayne. While Shepherd mostly kept his accusations of immorality to those politicians he suspected of homosexuality, as he left he warned Redmayne that there was another problem and mentioned Profumo’s name.7 Did Redmayne pass the message on? Or keep the war minister’s secret?
Macmillan was also criticised for being out of touch with the modern world when it came to the Profumo Affair. In his diaries, Macmillan seems to dismiss the social circles Astor and Profumo mixed within. He described the Edgecombe shooting case as ‘squalid’ and believes the term ‘model’ automatically infers prostitution. His diary entry mentions how politically disastrous the original Cliveden set was, and that the newer version was ‘disastrous morally’.
When he comments on Profumo, before his deception was exposed, Macmillan seems genuine in his assertation that the minister was foolish and indiscreet but not wicked, adding that the type of circles that Profumo was in were raffish and bohemian. The comments make him sound like an old man discussing the ‘youth of the day’, understandable until you realise the ministers he spoke of were middle-aged!
On 9 April, Macmillan received a note from George Wigg that outlined just how Ward and his social circle, and by implication also Profumo, spent their time. However, Macmillan still seems to have thought that while Profumo was unwise to mix with such a group, security was not at risk, and so he concentrated on other issues.8
Later the next month, however, the potential for a scandal involving the war minister couldn’t be ignored. On 24 May, Macmillan received a letter from Wilson including details from Ward that suggested Profumo had lied. While Hollis had disputed any security concerns the day before, Macmillan was now worried enough to ask the Lord Chancellor, Lord Dilhorne, to investigate, and headed off to a pre-planned holiday to Oban, Scotland with his wife, rather unrealistically hoping for a restful trip.9 Equally optimistically, perhaps, Profumo had headed to the romance of Venice with Valerie. The trip, we assume, was booked before Profumo learnt of the impending investigation, knowledge about which caused him to break the news of his infidelity to his wife on the first night of the vacation.
But just a few days into his holiday, Macmillan received a call from his Private Office telling him Profumo had admitted his lie. During the break, Macmillan also received a letter from Chief Whip Redmayne tendering his resignation over the issue. But, perhaps not realising how the news of Profumo’s deceit would blow up, Macmillan continued with his holiday, only returning to Rab and his office on 10 June. Coincidentally, it was the same day Gordon attended the Old Bailey charged with assaulting Keeler, and Ward had by then been arrested and charged under the Sexual Offences Act. The News of the World was serialising Keeler’s life story. A lot can happen when you take a break!
Later Macmillan wrote in his diary that he couldn’t recall having been under so much strain, although it’s said the PM still took a week to fully grasp the seriousness of the situation.10
Even so, Macmillan was once more annoyed with the press interest in the story, perhaps more so than with the instigator of the scandal itself. He felt the Profumo Affair would be used by the press against the government, which he thought was payback for the Vassall journalist jailings. And he took this as a personal attack too, later recording that every day new attacks were made, and mostly on him, focusing on his age and incompetence.11
On 17 June, the House reconvened, and as Macmillan must have expected, Wilson was ready to pounce. His speech started ‘This is a debate without precedent in the annals of this House’ and said that the revelations had ‘shocked the moral conscience of the nation’. Wilson focused on the security issues Profumo’s behaviour had thrown up and the seeming inaction of Macmillan towards them.
Macmillan was forced to reply.
He said that the scandal had inflicted a ‘deep, bitter and lasting wound’ on him, and admitted that he couldn’t ever remember a minister ever having behaved like Profumo, deliberately and repeatedly lying to his wife, legal team, colleagues and the Commons. He denied he’d been aware of the war minister’s unsuitable alliance with Ward from 1961, and not acted upon it, and then he explained why he hadn’t taken Profumo to task himself. It was here he used his age and rank as reasons for why Macmillan thought Profumo may have found it harder to confide in his Prime Minister, expecting him instead to be more open with the Chief Whip and law officers. But clearly, Macmillan had misjudged Profumo, who had no intention of sharing his secrets with any of his colleagues, whoever they were.
Macmillan also argued that he had been hesitant to act because of what had happened to Tam Galbraith, where false rumours had led to an unnecessary resignation. He also implicitly criticised the security services for not bringing the potential security risks of Keeler being asked to discover atomic secrets to his direct attention, commenting that it was unfortunate he had not received the information12 and he regretted that it hadn’t been passed on.13
Turning his criticism on Profumo, Macmillan commented that he, his colleagues and the House had been deceived by the minister but because he and the party were not privy to the deception, the House and the country should show sympathy and understanding.14
By the end of the debate, Macmillan was judged to have fared well against Wilson, although the Tory MP for West Flintshire, Nigel Birch, ruffled feathers when he spoke against Macmillan, suggesting that Macmillan should make way for a much younger colleague soon. For Birch, it was a dish best served cold, as Macmillan had previously dismissed Birch’s 1958 resignation as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, alongside that of two of his colleagues.
But Birch’s criticism wasn’t enough to encourage all fellow disgruntled Conservatives to force out their leader. The vote came, and since the Whips had warned the party that a lack of support would force Macmillan to resign – and therefore threaten their own jobs – the PM saw his worst ever debate result, a reduced but ultimately face-saving majority of fifty-seven. Berwick-upon-Tweed MP Lord Lambton (who was later himself exposed in the News of the World for using prostitutes and interviewed by MI5), Humphrey Berkeley (who in 1970 joined the Labour Party) and Henry Legge-Bourke were notable abstentions.
After the debate, Macmillan sought to repair the damage with the Denning Inquiry, and a letter apologising to the Queen. The Queen at least supported him, accepting that it was hard for someone who held high standards to suspect others of not being so. His family also rallied around, with Macmillan mentioning his wife’s affection and support and letters from Maurice.
