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Scandal-plagued Tories take another charge
Tories: Serious issues ignored
March 27, 1997
Web posted at: 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 GMT)From Correspondent Richard Blystone
LONDON (CNN) -- Fresh allegations of sleaze hit Britain's beleaguered Conservative government Thursday, as London newspapers went to press with a story about a Conservative legislator and his affair with a 17-year-old girl.
The story was the latest in a long series of financial and sexual exposes plaguing the Conservative Party as its members try to overcome the odds and win a fifth term in office in May 1 general elections.
Whatever theme the Conservatives try to play, it is drowned out by a nearly daily drumbeat of sleaze, sleaze, sleaze. Thursday's photograph of MP Piers Merchant in the arms of a 17-year-old nightclub hostess was part of a seven-page spread in the tabloid Sun, which has recently switched allegiance from the Conservatives to the Labor Party.
And although Merchant and his wife did their very best to counteract the poor impression, giving each other a public peck, Conservative elders were hinting that Merchant should kiss politics good-bye for the good of the party.
That's what former Tory Minister Tim Smith did after admitting he took a financier's cash to ask certain questions in Parliament.
And another Conservative legislator, Allan Stewart, gave up his safe Scottish seat after tabloids reported marital impropriety. A Conservative news statement Thursday said he had suffered a nervous breakdown under the strain.
Tories: Serious issues ignored
Conservatives complain that obsession with sleaze is diverting attention from serious campaign issues, and keeping them from highlighting the strong British economy that developed during their tenure. But Labor, holding its considerable lead in the polls, says nobody is to blame but Prime Minister John Major.
"It is impossible to return to these issues until Mr. Major shows the leadership necessary and tells us what he will now do about the known and admitted facts that make Conservative MPs unfit to be candidates," the Labor Party's Gordon Brown said in a news conference.
Further heating the situation is the government's inability -- or unwillingness -- to publish results of an inquiry into improper payments to lawmakers before this Parliament shuts down. Labor members accuse Conservatives of a cover-up; their unanswered charge guarantees that the sleaze issue will come up again and again in the campaign.
"I find it extraordinary that they didn't recognize that the timing of the election announcement would lead the opposition parties to make this charge of 'cover-up,'" said Financial Times' Robert Preston. "But, I genuinely believe that they didn't."
British voters tend to be interested in, but tolerant of, sexual scandals, and resigned to a few sordid financial shenanigans in politics. The bigger problem with recurring sleaze is that it makes a government look weak, foolish and leaderless.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related story:
- Long out of power, Labor tries a different tack - March 17, 1997
- Britain's Tories: The end of an era? - March 17, 1997
- Britain may see first-ever televised campaign debate - March 16, 1997
- Britain's political turmoil grows - December 6, 1996
- British ruling party loses parliamentary majority - December 7, 1996
- Britain's political turmoil grows - December 6, 1996
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