When his political career started to take off in the 1950s, homosexuality was considered a bar to a seat in Parliament.
The claims were serious enough he apparently had a visit from Special Branch officers who told him that not only was it illegal to go “cottaging” but it would end his career in politics.
The damning accusation of his seedy sex interest did not emerge until 2007, two years after his death, when a fellow Tory publicly “outed” him for the first time.
Brian Coleman, a member of the London Assembly who was then one of the party’s most prominent gay politicians, wrote in the a magazine article that Heath had once been warned in the 1950s by police - who were vetting him for membership of the Privy Council - to stop seeking out gay sex in public places...
So Heath did everything he could to mask his desire for gay sex.
But there were Westminster insiders who believed that there was a more sinister side to his sexuality - a weakness to find boys willing to sell their bodies to wealthy professional men.
One of the strongest rumours was that Heath, while Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, preyed on vulnerable young men...
One of those days when the media has become so lunatic, I think I'll just go back to bed...
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If Maggie had any such information on Heath, surely she would have dropped him in it, faster than you can say "Prominent gay politician? Who?" Is there anything the newspapers won't print during the silly season when the subject is safely dead?
ReplyDelete"When his political career started to take off in the 1950s, homosexuality was considered a bar to a seat in Parliament."
ReplyDeleteNo, it was actually illegal and a 'bar' to everything except prison or chemical castration. Good of the Mirror to gets its facts right. Won't bother reading the rest now.