EARL Mountbatten’s 11-year-old granddaughter was given Valium to calm her nerves after escaping the bomb blast. He had been the MP for Chichester since 1970, although he was MP for North Lewisham from 1959 to 1966 when he lost his seat. He previously had been an Olympic athlete and television reporter. As well as boys there were East End orgies and sex shows involving criminals. One account described Boothby lying under a glass-topped table while boys were made to defecate above him. Another described him sitting naked in a room with a number of criminals and boys around him, and "love beads" protruding from his anus. In 1981, MI5 received information that suggested that Tom Driberg had engaged in sexual activities with young boys.” On 21 July the Home Secretary chaired a secret meeting of senior Conservatives to discuss what is now being seen as an impending crisis. At his request, the editor and reporter at the Sunday Mirror were interviewed but said nothing.

Dorothy wanted a divorce. Devastated Macmillan refused and was so devoted to his wife that he allowed her to live with Boothby for a time.

MEMOS DESTROYED

There was evidence that when he dined Ronnie Kray in the House of Lords and took him for a drink at White's Club in St James's, members of Scotland Yard's Intelligence section already had him under surveillance. There was also evidence that, in return, Ronnie Kray could offer Boothby something more exciting than dinner at the Lords. Sir William van Straubenzee was a minister in Northern Ireland from 1972 to 1974. He remained a Conservative MP until 1987. Despite his celebrated charm, it was not the easiest of conversations. Unsurprisingly Boothby was very guarded on the subject of the twins. He insisted that he barely knew them, and that "the truth about my relationship with the Krays is contained in my letter to the Times" . Holt was also one of Ronnie Kray's drivers and lovers, and Ronnie clearly used him as a lure for Boothby, who was all too willing to be caught. To his credit, Boothby tried to save Holt from the dangers of the life he was living,and it was not the fault of Boothby - or the Krays - that Holt was later murdered by a Harley Street anesthetist.

The most interesting fresh evidence to come to light, and in its way the most pathetic, is the story of how Boothby met the Krays. This was through Leslie Holt, a young, good-looking cat burglar, with whom Boothby fell in love after meeting him at gambling club in 1963. At this stage MI5 was asked what it knew, and said it had nothing on Boothby or Kray. The chief whip said he believed there was a conspiracy between the Labour Party and the Mirror. He was working in Baghdad between 1959 and 1961. He was the UK’s high commissioner to Canada from 1970 to 1974, and is then understood to have become deputy director of MI6. But as an important member of the Labour executive, Driberg had a lot of influence, particularly over Harold Wilson, and he would certainly have used it to encourage Arnold Goodman's rescue operation which would save Boothby and himself.He was a supporter of Stalin and throughout his time in the Commons and later the Lords there were persistent rumours that he was a Soviet agent. Although the peer was not named, Fleet Street and the Commons had heard the rumours, and identified the peer as Lord Boothby, a former Conservative private secretary to Churchill, and then a radio and television personality. The Kray's had not yet achieved their notoriety.