Major faces legal threat

Edwina Currie and John Major in 1994

A newspaper group is demanding the return of £50,000 it claims it lost as a result a legal settlement with John Major, as the row over the former prime minister's four-year affair with Edwina Currie continues.

He was not very ashamed of it at the time, I can tell you

Edwina Currie

Sport Newspapers has said if Mr Major refuses to pay the money to a charity of its choice it will take court action.

The company was a major backer of Scallywag magazine, which folded in the early 1990s following a threat of legal action from Mr Major.

The former Tory leader claimed an article falsely accusing him of committing infidelity with a Downing Street caterer could have ruined his reputation.

'Outstanding loss'

As a result of the legal threat, Sport Newspapers, which owns the Daily and Sunday Sport, withdrew support from the magazine and it ceased to publish.

The alleged affair was subsequently proved not to have taken place and Mr Major was paid around £1,000 in legal costs.

Sullivan: legal threat

Sport Newspapers owner David Sullivan said: "While the alleged affair with a caterer clearly did not take place, John Major had been having sex outside his marriage with Edwina Currie.

"If these details had been known at the time we would have taken a more robust legal stance and we would not have a loss of £50,000 still outstanding.

"I intend to pursue John Major and force him to pay that amount to charity.

"If he fails to do so, I will take him to court to make him return our money."

Lawyers for the New Statesman magazine are also understood to be considering legal action against Mr Major.

'Slightly indignant'

Mrs Currie stunned the political world with her revelations in a weekend newspaper that she and Mr Major were lovers between 1984 and 1988.

But Mr Major's comment that the affair was the thing he was "most ashamed" of in his life, provoked an angry reaction from the flamboyant former health minister.

She told the Times: "He was not very ashamed of it at the time, I can tell you.

"I think I'm slightly indignant about that remark."

Tory backlash

While she was pleased Mr Major had not been so "foolish" as to try to deny the relationship, she added: "It's sad he was unable to say a kind word.

Currie revealed the affair in The Times

"These are secrets which have been kept for the best part of 15 years. There was a lot of pain involved in keeping those secrets."

But Mrs Currie's revelations, which are expected to earn her a five figure sum from book and newspaper serialisation rights, have provoked an angry backlash from Mr Major's friends and former colleagues.

Former Culture Secretary David Mellor, who was forced to resign after his own extra-marital affair was made public, accused Mrs Currie of being a "cheap trollop" who was only interested in making money.

'Nightmare scenario'

Mr Major's former press secretary, Sheila Gunn, said she thought Mrs Currie was "demeaning herself, which is rather sad."

She added: "She hasn't shown loyalty with him or to his family but also to the Conservative Party that she used to seem to be quite a supporter of."

Mrs Gunn said she was "extremely relieved" the affair did not "come out" while she was working for Mr Major.

"We had enough to deal with, that would have been a real nightmare scenario," she said.

Heart 'turned over'

Extracts from Mrs Currie's Diary, published in The Times, disclose how Mr Major's touch had turned her "heart over" and how she lost weight so the former prime minister "would have the best".

Mrs Currie writes that she did not expect to "love this man - and I do, very much indeed".

She adds: "All weekend I've been feeling his hand on mine and it turns my heart over.

"I weep for what I don't have, with the increasing certainty that I want it very much and somehow will have it again."