Ex-Chester MP Gyles Brandreth reveals he was a victim of child abuse in his updated Westminster diaries but can’t confirm the veracity of rumours that his predecessor was a paedophile.
Mr Brandreth, Tory MP between 1992 and 1997, was recently accused on Twitter of covering up for his former colleague, the late Sir Peter Morrison, after he appeared on a Radio 4 programme discussing historic allegations of a paedophile ring at Westminster. One said: “He should think about the victims for a change.”
His response appears in his updated version of Breaking The Code — Westminster Diaries, published on September 29, in which he reveals he was a victim at the hands of a teacher while at boarding school in Kent.
Brandreth, 66, wrote: “When he kissed me (which he did daily), when he put his hand on my knee as I sat next to him on the organ bench, when he let his hand stray inside my shorts as I sat on his bed learning my lines for the school play, I knew it was wrong but I did nothing to stop him.
“Instinctively, I understood that what he was doing was transgressive (without knowing the word), but I acquiesced.”
Brandreth rose to fame on breakfast show TV-AM when he was known for his colourful jumpers.
His most significant political legacy was his Private Member’s Bill which became the Marriage Act 1994, allowing civil marriage ceremonies in approved premises.
He had taken over from Sir Peter Morrison, a former deputy party chairman and senior aide to Margaret Thatcher, who was Tory MP for Chester from 1974 until 1992.
Since his death in 1995 Morrison has been linked to sexual abuse at the Bryn Estyn children’s home in Wrexham although these allegations have never been proved.
In his book, based on his experiences in the whips’ office, Mr Brandreth recalled Morrison’s explanation for stepping down: “‘I’m going now while I’ve got time to start another career,’ he told me. ‘I want to make some money.’ I believed him. But my wife Michele, whose instinct is always good, said she thought he was jumping before he was pushed.”
On arriving in Chester, Mr Brandreth said “the word on the street was that Peter was ‘a disgusting pervert’”. But he stressed: “I’d never have covered up for a child abuser. At the time, I don’t think I believed it. People do say terrible things without justification.”
The first he knew of his predecessor’s possible involvement in child abuse was in 1996, when William Hague, then Secretary of State for Wales, told him Morrison’s name may appear in the Waterhouse investigation into allegations of child abuse in care homes in North Wales. In the event, his name did not feature.
Mr Brandreth is unsure whether there was a cover-up and his own experience in the whips’ office made it “unthinkable” they could be responsible but mused: “The story would certainly have been embarrassing.”
He added: “He was a force to be reckoned with — at the heart of the Establishment, close to the PM, and, throughout this period, his sister, now Dame Mary Morrison, was a friend and lady-in-waiting to the Queen. This association with Buckingham Palace adds an undeniable frisson to the story.”
Breaking The Code — Westminster Diaries (updated version) is priced £25.
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