From Nigel Lawson, MP Sir: To the shame of your
paper of which I was at one time editor, there is not a word of truth in the reference to me in 'A Spectator's Notebook' in your issue of February 15.
Your ill-informed columnist asserts that I "arranged many little intimate suppers and meetings at his" — i.e. my — "house, 47 Hyde Park Gate, where fruitless plans Were laid to dish Margaret Thatcher". The boring facts are that Ted Heath, who has been a personal friend of mine for the past thirteen years or so, was present at a dinner party at my London home one evening last month. No plans were laid either to dish or to support anyone, and the question of the Tory leadership was not even discussed. That is all: indeed, throughout the period of the leadership contest I was fully occupied as a member of Margaret Thatcher's team on the Finance Bill committee.
The fun for us Members of Parliament in all this has been to witness how the whole of the press has consistently got everything wrong. Oh, and by the way, I don't even live at 47 Hyde Park Gate — but a grovelling apology will find me at no. 24.
Nigel Lawson House of Commons, London SW I.
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