TORY MP IN AMAZING COMEBACK
Bill Hagerty explains how and why
Jerry Hayes now enjoys better publicity than his tormentor Max Clifford
THE rehabilitation of the Conservative Member for Harlow has been remarkable even in a profession where escapes from Potential personal disaster make Houdini look like the late Tommy Cooper. As the dust swirled around the Hayes affair, it became obvious that it was going to take a lot more than the efforts of Max Clifford to destroy the career that Jerry built. With a succession of tactical hops and skips, rather than the traditional one mighty bound, and with more than a little help from his friends, the man apparently ruined by the News of the World over an alleged sexual relationship with a homo- sexual youth seems to be home free. But exactly why did the Hayes Apprecia- tion Society rally in such force and with such passion to stand by their man when the muck began to fly? For one Labour P I talked to this week it is as simple as, Everybody likes Jerry. He's a nice, liberal, funny guy and as a constant supporter of gay rights there is no way he can be accused of hypocrisy.' Unsurprisingly, the publicist Mr Clifford sees it differently: The establishment is running scared. I have said I have a couple of other big scandal stories involving Tories and I just know the depth of fear that has created. So the real villains of the piece have to be Max Clifford and Paul Stone' (the young man with whom the News of the World linked Mr Hayes).
Certainly Mr Hayes (I told the children: People are going to say horrid things about me' — Daily Mail) appears to have survived Paul Stone's allegations with only minor lacerations compared to the wounds suffered by either Mr Stone (I've been described as a greedy tart' — Guardian) or Mr Clifford, the messenger who, because of his confessed loathing for the Govern- ment, peddled the information to Britain's biggest selling newspaper (`Disgusting' Simon Heifer, Daily Mail), In terms of public relations, the Hayes team has out-Maxed the master. All the MP has been required to do is emerge from the Scottish hide-away to which he and his family fled from the News of the World headlines, cuddle up to his wife CI just cling to Alison through the night') and, during an interview with the Mail's Lynda Lee-Potter so sugary you could stand a spoon in it, recount his story, Mr Major is making a last desperate bid for popularity.' employing expertise worthy of the finest doctors of spin. Not that Mr Hayes, as far as one can tell, fibbed, But his economy with the truth was masterful.
When conducting his surgery for con- stituents in Harlow on Saturday, 4 January, Ms Lee-Potter reported, Mr Hayes received a telephone call telling him that Mr Stone had sold his story, via Mr Clif- ford, to the News of the World. Reading this must have surprised Rebekah Wade, deputy editor of the paper, who was wait- ng patiently at the back of the room at around 11.15 a.m. that day for the surgery to finish. Like so many journalists befriended by the MP over the years, Ms Wade liked Jerry and did not relish break- ing the bad news to him after he had greet- ed her warmly and, surgery over, adjourned with her to a local hotel.
When informed of Mr Stone's allega- tions, Mr Hayes denied them, as he has done consistently since. He was then shown copies of the warm and tender, or `Mills & Boon', as he later described them, letters, some on House of Commons head- ed notepaper, which he had written to Paul Stone. He and Ms Wade discussed the story in detail and it was agreed that some elements of it would not be pub- lished. That afternoon Mr Hayes contacted the News of the World several times and, as had been arranged, Ms Wade read him the published story shortly after 7 p.m. although Ms Lee-Potter has it that `as they were at the airport, a family friend rang Jerry to tell him what was in the first edi- tion of the following day's News of the World'.
If the News of the World, against which Mr Hayes has issued a writ for libel, is puz- zled by the inconsistencies between this account and what it considers its profes- sional and not unsympathetic dealings with him on that day perry thinks they behaved quite properly in the circum- stances,' said another of his journalistic friends), the paper at least has the comfort of not being blamed for the MP's indiscre- tion. The red-topped tabloid press in recent years has been held directly respon- sible for such scandals as the then Her- itage Minister David Mellor's dalliance with an actress and just about every calamity which has befallen the royal fami- ly. This time the target was different.
Having obtained the first interview with Mr Hayes's supportive wife, and resisting the hyperbole (gong-legged, stunning . . . ') indulged in by Ms Lee-Potter, the People's political editor, Nigel Nelson, a good friend of Jerry's and the Mail's anonymous, and somewhat late, airport caller, then wrote: 'I was uneasy when he [Max Clifford] turned smut into an indus- try . . do democracy a favour, Max butt out.' Others joined a chorus which soon adopted the dignity of a lynch mob: the Mail brought both barrels of its shot- gun to bear, with Mr Heifer pulling one trigger ('Whatever the people of Harlow think of Hayes, they loathe even more the repulsive little deviant who claims to have had an affair with him and the disgusting Max Clifford most of all') and two reporters, Paul Harris and Nick Hopkins, squeezing the other (Paul Stone believed his betrayal of Jerry Hayes would mean instant fame. Today even his local gay pub has closed its doors to him'). `Now the Mail on Sunday is prying into my private life,' claims Mr Clifford, and says that Barry Ryan, half of the one-time pop idol singing duo and a friend of Max's, will confirm this. Mr Ryan does so, saying, `They asked about any parties I may have been at with Max and what happened. I told them to sod off. And a friend in Los Angeles called to say someone from the Mail had turned up at his house asking about Max.' When asked if Mr Clifford was a subject of their inquiries, the Mail on Sunday promised to call back and, indeed, still might.
Meanwhile, the News of the World says both the editor and Rebekah Wade have received messages of goodwill from Mr Hayes. Should he retain his marginal seat at the general election, he will doubtless acknowledge that 'It was the Screws what won it'. As for the Mail, on the day Messrs Harris and Hopkins were dissecting Mr Stone, the paper published a front-page picture and an entire inside page on unflat- tering claims made about the Treasury Minister Angela Knight by her 'embittered' ex-husband. Mr Knight's messenger is, nat- urally, Max Clifford. 'I'm quite happy,' says Max.
The author, a former editor of the People, writes a theatre column for the News of the World.
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