A Camera Behind Every Bush

SOMEONE did a smart job digging dirt on the Tories as the election campaign got under way. Almost three years after two MPs were accused of accepting money to raise questions in Parliament, one of them resigned after fresh evidence was leaked. Another Conservative leader quit after a tabloid threatened a story on a gay affair with an assistant. Yet another left after admitting to an affair with an alcoholic woman. The Sun followed with a picture of a Tory MP kissing a 17-year-old "night club hostess" in a park. One after the other, Tories quit the election business. And those who didn't gave Labour plenty of high ground to speak of morality, which deflected embarrassed Tories from pointing to Labour's double-dealing.

The dirt dug up ranged from serious corruption to those sex scandals British tabloids churn out with spicy frequency. The most damaging blow was the decision by Tim Smith to stand down as Tory MP after he admitted having accepted envelopes packed with pound sterling 50 notes from Mohammed Al-Fayed, owner of the Harrods store. Smith, former Northern Ireland minister, quit that job when the scandal first came up in October '94. This year he admitted at an inquiry by Sir Gordon Downey that he took at least pound sterling 18,000 cash from Fayed in exchange for lobbying ministers on his behalf and raising partisan questions in Parliament.

The inquiry report will be published only after the election, but Smith quit after The Guardian published his testimony before Sir Gordon. The leak came just as the poll campaign began to pick up. "I very much regret that the action of The Guardian in support of Labour has made my course of action inevitable," Smith signed off. But that probably wasn't as bad as the refusal of a second MP to resign over the 'cash for questions' scandal.

Neil Hamilton, ex-trade minister and MP for Tatton, admits accepting hospitality, furniture, paintings and an air ticket for former lobbyist Ian Greer from Fayed but denies receiving cash payment. His refusal to stand down has led to the most keenly watched election contest. Labour and the Liberal Democrats withdrew their candidates from Tatton and decided to support BBC TV correspondent Martin Bell, projecting him as Mr Clean.

The Tatton Conservatives stood behind Hamilton at a party meeting. If Bell's clean, did that make Hamilton corrupt, wife Christine was quick to ask. Bell, familiar with libel law after 35 years with the BBC, made no allegations except to say that Hamilton's admission should be enough to disqualify him from Parliament. Stressing his own clean record, he jested that the only time that any of his bills had been queried by the BBC was over a taxi bill in India in November last year.

Bell has slipped into the business of getting reported rather than reporting with relish. "I thought a long time ago there was something amiss in this country," he told the press after his nomination. "Sometimes we've to get off our backsides and help people. Last year Bell had said that he saw himself as "founder-member of the Get-Something-Done Club. Labour-Libdem didn't need much time to persuade Bell to contest.

But Bell is getting his first taste of how dirty the business can be. He says someone has begun digging into his two divorces. A story surfaced that he had paid kids to throw stones at troops in Northern Ireland for the camera, an allegation both he and the BBC denied.

Then Sir Michael Hirst, chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party, resigned after admitting to what he called "a past indiscretion"-after a tabloid newspaper confronted him with evidence that he had had an affair with a male researcher. Another senior Conservative leader, Allan Stewart, quit after admitting a relationship with a woman being treated at a clinic for alcohol-related problems.

The Sun added to the hit list with a photograph of Piers Merchant, Tory MP from Beckenham in Kent, kissing Anna Cox, 17, described as a hostess in a night club. The report said the MP had shared "nights of passion" with Anna. Merchant said he had spent only one night with her, and that his wife knew about it. Like in Tatton, the Tories in Beckenham backed Merchant. His candidacy was supported by 43 votes to three. The so-called affair, he claimed, was "set up" by Anna, who threw herself at him and kissed him as they walked in a park. Merchant told The Sun: "You must have a very weird sense of values if you see anything wrong with me kissing a girl in the park." Merchant, who says he is happily married with two children, also insisted: "I've never made love to her." Anna Cox said otherwise.

The sex scandals have embarrassed John Major after his slogan "Back to Basics"--a call for the British to return to family values. The Sunday Times quoted Major as telling colleagues after the Merchant incident: "Don't they know there's a photographer behind every bush?"