Currie spares Tory blushes

Currie: 'Doing the decent thing?'

Edwina Currie has said she will not be attending the Conservatives' conference because she does not want to cause "any more embarrassment".

Her assurances may have little impact on the party, which is still reeling from the shock disclosure that she had a four-year affair with former prime minister John Major.

I'm not going anywhere near the conference this year

Edwina Currie

While Mr Major also has no plans to join the Tory faithful down in Bournemouth, he could face a legal battle with the New Statesman.

The magazine has said it will sue John Major for costs resulting from a 1993 court case, following revelations of his affair with Mrs Currie.

The political weekly lost a libel action against Mr Major nine years ago over false claims he had had an affair with a Downing Street caterer.

'Nine day wonder'

Mrs Currie's recently published diaries astonished Westminster with details about her love for Mr Major, his blue underpants, how they discussed God in the bath and suggestions that the couple enjoyed a three-hour sex session.

But despite the revelations, she seemed keen on Thursday to spare the party's blushes further.

Major remains tight-lipped

She told The Times she would not be attending the conference because she did "not want to cause the party any more embarrassment than necessary".

She also predicted the scandal over her liaison with the former prime minister was a "nine-day wonder" which would soon blow over.

"I'm not going anywhere near the conference this year. I didn't go last year," she told BBC Radio 2's Headline-makers programme.

"It's a big jamboree and it's a lot of fun and hard work for the people who go to these conferences but no, I am pleased to stay I shall be home in Surrey."

'Downright lies'

While Mrs Currie has done the media circuit with interviews defending her decision to release details about the affair between 1984 and 1988, Mr Major has remained tight-lipped.

Mrs Currie stressed that only "very selective extracts" of her diaries had been seen so far.

She said the book was more concerned with the politics of the day than with affairs.

She also claimed Mr Major's autobiography was "a complete pack of downright lies".

Making history

"He promoted this whole Back to Basics thing which I thought was cruel and wrong - wrong in principle even if he had been absolutely pristine himself, and he let that image continue," she said.

Mrs Currie claimed her motivation to have the book published was to set history straight, not for revenge or money.

People mentioned in the diaries had "moved on" and her disclosures were unlikely to damage the Conservatives.

Mrs Currie insisted: "This will all blow over. This is nine-day wonder territory.

"Once people have got their heads round what happened and how they need to revise their view of the eighties and nineties then I have absolute confidence that it will all blow over and I certainly hope it does."