remembering Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976, died three weeks before Christmas 2014. The infamy of his political downfall in the late 1970s unfairly colours all else in his life. Thorpe was a stylish, progressive and popular politician, and under his leadership the Liberal Party won more votes than ever before at a general election and helped drive legislation taking Britain into the European Community through a divided Parliament. To commemorate his life for the Journal of Liberal History, Robert Ingham analyses Thorpe’s political legacy, while Ronald Porter takes a look at his life and times.

6 Journal of Liberal History 85 Winter 2014–15 remembering Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberal legacy Coverage of Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberalism of nationalised indus- established the principle of target- death inevitably dwelt on the sen- tries and the mixed economy. The ing and the concomitant respon- sational end to his political career. Liberal Assembly witnessed an sibility on local associations to do Questions had been raised before annual battle between the two fac- what they were told, in the overall Thorpe’s resignation as Liberal tions; whichever side was better interests of the party, in order to leader in 1976 about his judgement, organised came out on top. The receive money. his finances, his choice of friends Liberal leadership, such as it was, As leader, Thorpe initially and his sexual orientation, in an did not intervene. The free-mar- seemed out of his depth. He inher- era when homosexuality had only keteers were making the running ited a party whose electoral for- recently been legalised. All of these in 1953 until Thorpe, still in his tunes were in reverse and which issues swirled around Thorpe’s early twenties, intervened to say contained numerous divergent trial for conspiring to murder Nor- that Liberal candidates in the south- strands of opinion. Just six Liber- man Scott. It hardly mattered that west would resign if the party dis- als were elected to the Commons Thorpe was acquitted. The trial claimed agricultural subsidies on at the 1970 election, a result which destroyed his reputation. He lost his doctrinal grounds. Thorpe swung seemed to show that the 1960s seat in Parliament and was unable the vote and helped change the cli- revival had been a temporary blip to rebuild his career. Tragically, he mate of opinion within the party in the party’s long-term decline. was afflicted by Parkinson’s Disease against the economic liberals. In After Thorpe’s first wife died in for his last thirty years. speaking out he demonstrated the June 1970 he appeared to lose inter- These issues have tended to pragmatism which was at the heart est in politics. And yet, his party eclipse Thorpe’s political career, of his political outlook. He wanted revived with a series of improbable which is worthy of reappraisal. to advance Liberal politics by win- by-election victories and Thorpe Thorpe is sometimes character- ning elections, not by running a was reinvigorated. He recognised ised as a showman, all style but debating club. that the leader of the third party no substance, an unworthy suc- Thorpe’s pragmatism was evi- needed to stand out from the crowd cessor to the intellectual rigour dent in the early 1960s when he in order to gain any media atten- and undoubted integrity of his developed the party’s first scheme tion. Combining an old-fashioned, predecessor, Jo Grimond. This is for targeting resources into win- debonair style of dress with the unfair. If Thorpe lacked an intel- nable seats. He pored over details newest campaigning techniques – lectual commitment to Liberal- of election results, party member- helicopters, hovercraft and the like ism he would surely have joined ship and the activities of local asso- – he got the coverage the Liberals the Conservatives, given his fam- ciations to decide where money needed. It was also significant that, ily background, where he may well should be focused – money he often under Thorpe’s leadership, the Lib- have ended up as a cabinet minister raised himself rather than via offi- erals stood in every constituency under Ted Heath. That he chose cial party channels. Local associa- in Great Britain for the first time. to plough the stony ground of the tions were surprised, and appalled, In February 1974 the Liberals had post-war Liberal Party demon- to be told that funding depended their best general election result for strates that Thorpe had more politi- on dropping a candidate they had over forty years (6,059,519 votes, a cal depth than is often appreciated. selected or on increasing member- total not surpassed until 2010, and Thorpe first became promi- ship by a certain amount. At first, 19.3 per cent of the vote), although nent in Liberal circles at the 1953 targeting was Thorpe’s initiative it still fell well short of the break- Assembly. The party was at that and he kept the party’s governing through the party hankered after. time in the midst of a lively debate committees in the dark. When they Later third-party leaders – mostly between strident free-marketeers found out what was happening Paddy Ashdown – have followed – some of whom later resurfaced as they were unimpressed but his view Thorpe in combining their own Margaret Thatcher’s most ardent prevailed. A number of the Liberal Jeremy Thorpe personal characteristics with inno- supporters – and social liberals, gains of the mid 1960s owed a debt speaking at vative and high-profile campaign- grappling with the implications for to Thorpe. More importantly, he Liberal Assembly ing to good effect.

Journal of Liberal History 85 Winter 2014–15 7 remembering jeremy thorpe

Thorpe was a pragmatist and the inconclusive first election in Thorpe was family and friends, at about the a campaigner but his intellectual 1974. Details of precisely what hap- same time. Before he returned to input into the Liberal Party should pened remain murky and it seems a pragmatist Eton in 1943, he was reputed to not be overlooked. International- unlikely that Thorpe would have have had consenting sex with at ism was the most prominent aspect been offered the post of Home Sec- and a cam- least two young American truck of his Liberalism and he was a prin- retary, as has been suggested, given drivers. After Eton, Thorpe went cipled exponent of views which the rumours already circulating paigner but to Trinity College, Oxford, to were not intended to garner popu- about his private life. Crucially, read law. His aim was to get a law larity. He spoke out against apart- Thorpe could not proceed without his intellec- degree, then do the Bar Finals, be heid in South Africa at a time when the consent of his party, which he called to the Bar and use his career many British politicians preferred did not have. The similarities and tual input at the criminal bar as a stepping to remain silent. Although he was differences between the coalition into the Lib- stone to adoption for a winnable ridiculed for suggesting that the discussions in 1974 and 2010 deserve Liberal parliamentary seat. He was UK should bomb the railway line further exploration, but Thorpe eral Party never really interested in a legal by which Ian Smith’s renegade understood that the Liberals would career as such; a parliamentary regime in Rhodesia was supplying not be bounced into coalition. should not be career was always the ultimate goal, itself with oil, it was at least a pos- Thorpe’s political legacy to the just as it was for graduates who fol- sible way of enforcing sanctions. Liberal Party is complex but, look- overlooked. lowed after him such as Emlyn With air strikes against dissident ing beyond the obvious negatives, Hooson or Menzies Campbell. regimes now an established part of there are positive aspects which At the age of 30, Thorpe won the US and UK foreign policy, it can deserve recognition. Most signifi- seat of North Devon in the October now be seen that Thorpe was ahead cantly, it is difficult to see how any 1959 general election. It was about of his time. Thorpe also ensured of his rivals for the leadership in this time that the Devon Constabu- that the Liberals maintained the 1967 would have done better in the lary opened a file on Thorpe and pro-Common Market course first 1974 elections, which put beyond his ‘weekend liaisons’ with other set by Jo Grimond, voting for Brit- debate the question of whether the young men, in their twenties and ish entry amid stormy scenes in the party was declining or on the way early thirties, in a hotel in his con- Commons, during which punches up. stituency, not far from the seaside were thrown. Thorpe could have I will be developing these town of Ilfracombe. Well before sought narrow partisan advantage themes further in a chapter on Jer- the liberating Sexual Offences Act by compromising on the Common emy Thorpe’s leadership in the His- of 1967, this was a period when Market issue to bring down the tory Group’s forthcoming book on homosexuality was still a crime, Heath Government, but he was not Liberal leaders, due for publication punishable by imprisonment. prepared to do so. in autumn 2015. Thorpe soon became a good, Thorpe was also the first Liberal and very witty, debater in the leader for over twenty years to be Robert Ingham is a political writer and House of Commons. He first came offered a seat in government, after Biographies Editor of the Journal of to the public’s attention after Ian Liberal History. Smith’s unilateral declaration of independence in Rhodesia. In 1966; he advocated bombing Rhodesia’s railways in order to bring the coun- Sex, Jeremy and Me try to its senses. This won him a following with the radical wing of The purpose of my piece is to con- figures, and other men came to play the Liberal Party, and particularly centrate on the private life of Jer- important roles in their lives – Bob the Young Liberals. He was also emy Thorpe. Buckingham, a plump and jovial good at sucking-up to the aristo- John Jeremy Thorpe was born working-class policeman, in For- cratic side of the party, getting on on 29 April 1929, the son of John ster’s life, and the former stable lad very well with the Grimonds and Thorpe KC OBE and Ursula and male model Norman Scott in the Bonham Carters. He was keen Thorpe, nee Norton-Griffiths. His Thorpe’s life in the 1960s. And both to make it clear that he was a mem- mother was the most the dominant were homosexual. However, while ber of both the Reform and the force in his early – and formative – Buckingham was a calm and reas- National Liberal Clubs, had been to years. Socially, Thorpe came from suring figure in Forster’s life, Scott Eton and Oxford, that his grandfa- the world of the Forsytes, the upper was a temperamental, hot-headed ther was a baronet and his father a middle classes; his father was a suc- and fundamentally jealous lover King’s Counsel. cessful barrister and a Tory MP. He who eventually destroyed Thorpe’s When Grimond resigned the left the upbringing of Jeremy to his political career. Liberal leadership in 1967, Thorpe intimidating and interfering wife, Thorpe was educated first at decided to become a contender. He a role she relished. The daughter of Eton, but in 1940, because of war- was by no means certain of suc- a baronet, Sir John Norton-Grif- time bombing in England, he was cess, but he thought it was a use- fiths, she often wore a monocle, sent to the safety and security of the ful way of getting known and be a and dominated Jeremy’s early years United States and educated at the good way of a putting up a marker in the same way as E. M. Forster’s Rectory School, Connecticut. His for future contests. To his surprise, mother dominated that author’s sad interest in Liberal politics began he won the contest, and served childhood years. There are other at the school; his interest in blokes as leader from 1967 until 1976. parallels: both lacked strong father became common knowledge, with Through the years, he steadily

8 Journal of Liberal History 85 Winter 2014–15 remembering jeremy thorpe managed to increase the profile of Bessell’s credibility, showing him in 1970 as a result of a dreadful car the Liberals at general elections. His to be an inveterate liar and fantasist. accident. Thorpe married again flamboyant personality, his wit and The other star prosecution witness in 1973, to Marion, Countess of penchant for publicity, were useful was Norman Scott. Again, Car- Harewood, who had divorced the assets. When the February general man destroyed his credibility by Queen’s cousin, the Seventh Earl of election of 1974 left the Commons giving the impression that he was Harewood, in 1967 on the grounds with no overall majority, Prime nothing but a vindictive sponger, of his adultery. Humiliated by the Minister Heath invited Thorpe to a tearful whinger who was angry publicity of Harewood’s adultery Downing Street for talks on form- at being discarded by Thorpe. As and the subsequent divorce, Marion ing a coalition between the Con- the defence team did in the 2014 disliked the sense that she was ‘on servatives and the Liberals. Thorpe Shrien Dewani murder trial in the shelf’ and resolved to marry was absolutely delighted and des- South Africa, Carman, very early again if the chance arose. When perate to enter government; it was on, astutely conceded that Thorpe Thorpe, with his taste in classical rumoured that Heath was going had homosexual ‘tendencies’, thus music, was first introduced to her to make Thorpe Home Secretary, denying to the prosecution the by Moura Lympany, at a concert in though this was later denied by chance to bring forward, day after 1972, it was only a matter of time Heath. The talks soon petered out, day, damaging evidence to ‘prove’ before they married. however, because most of Thorpe’s those tendencies in detail. When Marion became Thorpe’s MPs had no desire to sit in govern- The trial judge, Mr Justice second wife in 1973, she was a very ment with the discredited and divi- Cantley, subsequently came in for rich woman as a result of a gener- sive Tories, a party which after all, much criticism. He was accused of ous divorce settlement. She had a had just lost the election – a view repeated bias in favour of Thorpe substantial income and some large shared by the party as a whole. throughout the lengthy trial. Peter capital sums, and Harewood also Thorpe’s downfall began in Cook, for example, playing the gave her a grand and spacious cen- January 1976 when Norman Scott, judge for a satirical TV comedy, tral London house in Orme Square, a former lover of Thorpe’s, began told the jury that ‘the time has full of quality furniture, some of a campaign of vilification against come for you to retire to consider it of museum standard, along with him, alleging that Thorpe had had your Not Guilty verdict.’ But the some excellent pictures. In order to an affair with him in the early 1960s Crown’s case was always a weak meet the defence costs of the trial, and then had tried to silence him by one, resting on little real evidence however, a large amount of her trying to have him murdered. Soon and relying too heavily on the tes- money went on Thorpe’s legal bills, the police got involved, leading to timony of just two main witnesses, but they continued to live in Orme Thorpe’s prosecution at the Old whom Carman was able, very Square and in Devon. There were Bailey in 1979. Thorpe lost his seat quickly, to discredit. The acquittal, no children from this marriage, but in the general election of 1979, just when it came, was an immense relief it was a long and happy one, end- before his trial, and he had already to Thorpe – but the damage it did to ing only with Marion’s death on 6 been forced to resign from the lead- his political career was devastating March 2014. ership of the Liberal Party in 1976. and irreversible. It also contributed A few days before the resignation, to a long and very cruel decline in Ronald Porter was a Good Food Spy for a Sunday paper got hold of one of his health which ultimately caused ‘What’s On’ for over twenty years, and Thorpe’s numerous love letters his sad death on 4 December 2014. has written book reviews for Political to Scott, which referred to a holi- Although he had strong homo- Quarterly, articles for the Conserva- day the couple were planning and sexual feelings throughout most of tive History Journal and numerous ended up with the words ‘Bunnies his life, Thorpe married twice, first obituaries for The Independent. He is [Thorpe’s nickname for his lover] in 1968 to Caroline Allpass. They currently researching the life and times of CAN and WILL go to France!’ had one son, Rupert, who was born Jeremy and Marion Thorpe for a talk at Thorpe’s trial at the Old Bai- in the same year, but Caroline died the National Liberal Club. ley garnered phenomenal press coverage. After Scott’s first day of evidence in the witness box, one Liberal Democrat History Group online tabloid came out with the headline: Website ‘SEX, JEREMY AND ME’. Later, See www.liberalhistory.org.uk for details of our activities and publications, guides to archive sources, after a ruthless cross-examina- research resources, and a growing number of pages on the history of the party. (Please note that we are tion of Scott by Thorpe’s counsel, ciurrently upgrading our website, and there may be some delay in making all content available.) George Carman QC, another tab- loid used the headline: ‘Scott : I’m Email not the Woman Scorned!’. Join our email mailing list for news of History Group meetings and publications – the fastest and earliest The prosecution case rested way to find out what we’re doing. Fill in the form at: http://bit.ly/LDHGemail. firstly on evidence from Peter Bes- sell, a former Liberal MP, chosen by Facebook page Thorpe to buy Scott’s silence with News of the latest meeting and publications, and a discussion forum: periodic cash payments. Bessell www.facebook.com/LibDemHistoryGroup. alleged that Thorpe became impa- tient and floated the idea of having Twitter Scott murdered. Carman, for the A daily posting of Liberal events on this day in history. Follow us at: LibHistoryToday. defence, found it easy to destroy

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