When Profumo resigned, Harold Macmillan asked Lord Alfred Denning to undertake an enquiry. The senior judge was tasked with examining the circumstances that led to the resignation of the Secretary of State for War, and in particular, report on any threat to national security.
When the report was published by the Government Stationery Office on 26 September, it sold over 100,000 copies in a few days.1 Far from being a dull, dry report (despite its official title: ‘The Circumstances Leading to the Resignation of the Former Secretary of State for War, Mr J. D. Profumo’) it was described at the time as ‘the raciest and most readable blue book ever published’.2 Lines formed outside the Stationery Office with people wanting to pay 7s 6d for their copy. If there was muck to be raked, surely Denning must have found it? As early as 2 August, Denning told Macmillan he had established Ernest Maples, the Minister for Transport, had used prostitutes, while MP Denzil Freeth, deputy at the Ministry of Science, had been engaged in a homosexual relationship.3
Mandy Rice-Davies was one of the people interviewed by Denning. She received her summons when she had headed to the airport and a woman delivering a letter from Lord Denning stopped her. When she attended the interview, which was arranged for her return, Rice-Davies said she found the lord intimidating and that his mind was already made up about the case. Of the report, she remembers that the public queued from midnight to be the first to read it that September. However, she said that so much of it was wrong that it was instead colloquially known as the ‘Whitewash Paper’.4
Denning, who liked to keep a copy of the Bible close to hand when he was writing judgements,5 exonerated both the PM and the security services in his report, while he treated Keeler with some sympathy. The real criticism was reserved for Ward, however, who Denning believed to be immoral and evil. Even twenty years later, Denning hadn’t changed his mind about Ward, describing the osteopath as ‘really wicked’, ‘filthy’ and ‘steeped in vice’. It’s also been suggested that friends of Ward offered to testify, but Denning called none of them.
Keeler also considered the Denning Inquiry, which started on 25 June, to be part of the whitewash.6 She describes her experience of being interviewed twice in the government offices near Leicester Square. During these interviews, in wood-panelled rooms, Keeler says she told Denning everything she knew. She described visits by Hollis and Blunt, and what she knew about Sir Godfrey meeting Ivanov. She also identified Hollis and Sir Godfrey from photographs to ensure it hadn’t been a case of mistaken identity.
Keeler says Denning also interviewed Ward three times and spoke to Profumo, the PM, the press and to half a dozen girls that knew Ward, and had gathered reports from the police, MI5 and the CIA. Denning heard all the evidence in private.
In the interviews, Keeler says she confessed to Denning her part in the spy ring, that she’d witnessed meetings and taken sensitive material to the Russian Embassy. For her part, she believes she made it clear that Ward was an important player in Russian espionage, and that he’d tried to kill her because she knew so much. She also says she told Denning that Ward had described John Kennedy as ‘too dangerous’ and that he should be ‘put out of the picture’ a few months before his assignation.
By the end of her experience with Denning, however, Keeler felt what she had said had been ignored and that she was painted as a liar in order that Denning could claim there had been no risk to national security.7 This was done, she thought, in the national interest. Keeler feels that details of sex parties, such as the infamous Feast of Peacocks and the mysterious identity of the participant dubbed the ‘Man in the Mask’, were divulged to pull focus from any talk of spies in high places.
Instead, Keeler says Denning re-arranged dates and names to cover up what had happened and let her take the blame for what had happened.8
Denning began his work by identifying those at the centre of the scandal in turn. He started first with Ward, who he accepted was a skilled osteopath with well-known patients and an accomplished portrait artist, although he also said that Ward’s familiar manner put people off9 and that he often exaggerated his relationship with VIPs. He also describes Ward as ‘utterly immoral’ and suggests within his papers that Ward seduced girls of 16 or 17, taking them to his Cliveden cottage, and that he also obtained these girls for his influential friends. Denning’s character assassination of Ward went on to suggest that some of Ward’s friends were perverts interested in sadistic practices and that Ward himself was promiscuous and enjoyed pornography and orgies. Denning also criticised Ward’s financial arrangements, as Ward did not have a bank account and so he used cash instead, which was impossible to trace. Denning described Ward as a communist sympathiser, several of whose patients became suspicious of him because of this.10
He then discussed Ivanov, whom he points out was a good friend of Ward, and whom he describes as a heavy drinker and lothario. As a known Russian intelligence officer, Denning said it had been suggested to him that Ivanov was using a new technique designed to divide the UK and the US. This method was to place ministers or prominent people in compromising situations, or make such people the subject of rumour, and make the Security Service seem incompetent, thus eroding the confidence America might have in Britain.11
Next, Denning turned his gaze to Keeler, who he referred to as a ‘girl’ of 21, who admitted her job as a showgirl meant she walked about with no clothes on and seemed to be controlled by Ward. According to Denning, it was Ward who introduced Keeler to the men she slept with and to cannabis, which she then became addicted to. Denning also says that Keeler met the dealers, who were ‘coloured’, and went to live with them.12
By comparison, when introducing Profumo in the report, Denning mentions the minister’s impressive war and service records and added that no one that he spoke to during his investigations considered Profumo disloyal.13 Lord Astor receives a similar glowing description, because of both his charity work and notable business interests. Astor’s weekend entertaining is described as upholding the tradition of hospitality that the great house of Cliveden was known for.
Denning then discusses the events of the weekend of 8 and 9 July 1961, when Profumo first met Keeler. Denning viewed the initial swimming pool meeting between Ward’s guests and those of Astor as a bit of fun and the pool party the following day as light-hearted. By contrast, when Keeler and Ivanov returned to Ward’s flat, Denning describes an excess of alcohol and the likelihood of sex having taken place. However, Denning makes it clear he believes that Keeler and Ivanov only ever had sex this one time and that it did not blossom into any type of longer-term relationship.
Denning does accept Keeler’s sexual relationship with Profumo was a fact, mentioning that for Profumo, getting in touch with Keeler after the Cliveden weekend was easily arranged via Ward. Denning is happy to accept that Profumo’s interest in Keeler was purely sexual, and that the minister gave her one or two presents and wrote two or three notes to her. Denning explains that when Keeler told Profumo that her parents were badly off, he realised it was Keeler’s way of asking for money in return for her services and gave her £20. Interestingly, while Denning thought of Ward, a single man, as promiscuous, he doesn’t pass judgement on Profumo, a married man seeking sex with someone other than his wife, who Denning seems to readily accept paid for the sex he had with Keeler.
Despite sexual encounters with Keeler by both Ivanov and Profumo at Ward’s house, Denning says he did not believe the two men ever met at the residence or its doorway.14
Denning says that Ivanov asked Ward to find out when America planned to arm West Germany with atomic weapons, and that it was implied Ward might then get a visa to Russia that would allow him to sketch dignitaries, including the premier, there. But Denning says if Ward ever asked Keeler to find this information out from Profumo, it was only ever said as a joke, as Ward did not consider Keeler up to the job. Denning also adds that he was adamant that Profumo would not have told Keeler sensitive information even if she had asked him for it.15
Denning was also satisfied that Profumo took seriously the warning about associating with Ward and Ivanov on 9 August 1961, from Sir Norman Brook, afterwards cancelling his arrangement to see Keeler via the infamous ‘Darling’ letter. Denning believed that any relationship between Profumo and Keeler had ended by December 1961, and that he was ‘unable to accept’ evidence to the contrary. At this point, Denning agrees it was not necessary for the Prime Minister to be told of the events because Profumo was not considered a security risk by either the Security Service or Sir Norman Brook.16
In his next chapter, in which Denning displayed his bias by suggesting Ward helped the Russians in its heading, Denning details how Ward enlisted the help of Lord Astor to arrange for him to meet with the Foreign Office and offer his services. The offer was declined, says Denning, but Ward then approached Sir Godfrey Nicholson (who Denning feels the need to point out is a loyal Englishman) to meet Ivanov. Instead, Ward was able to meet with Nicholson and Sir Harold Caccia from the Foreign Office, where again Ward offered to put Caccia in touch with Ivanov, another offer that was declined. Denning says Ward repeatedly attempted to engage the UK as an intermediary between the US and Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, approaching the Foreign Office, Nicholson, Astor and Lord Arran for such an opportunity. However, he believed all these machinations were poorly thought out rather than deliberately harmful.17
Denning deftly summarises the assault Johnny Edgecombe was accused of carrying out on Lucky Gordon, and the later shooting at Ward’s flat by Edgecombe on 14 December 1962, in his report. However, he is quick to point out that Ward caused Keeler to be in Rio Café in the first place because he was keen to have sex with a black woman, and that this is how Keeler became involved with the scene in the first place. He draws attention too to the interest a retired solicitor, called Michael Eddowes, had in hearing Keeler’s account of her recent relationships with Profumo and Ivanov, when he arrives to talk to Keeler after the police had questioned her regarding Edgecombe’s alleged offences, for which she would be an important witness.
The report then turns to the party held on 23 December 1962. There Keeler speaks to former MP John Lewis, who Denning explains was interested in the story, recommending a solicitor and making a point of seeing Keeler so that he could find out more. Lewis was well aware of the security implications in what he had heard, says Denning, and relayed the story to George Wigg MP, with the two then having almost daily contact on the matter.19
The press became involved in Keeler’s affairs through acquaintances telling her that a newspaper would buy her story, says Denning within his report. On their advice, he says, Keeler visited the News of the World and the Sunday Pictorial, arranging a deal with the latter. Telling them of her two contrasting social scenes alongside details of how Ward had asked her to obtain information from Profumo, Denning said the newspaper reporters realised that the espionage edge to the story made it even more interesting.20
Denning then includes in his report the never-published but signed-off story by Keeler in which she refers to Profumo as reckless because it would have been easy for someone, perhaps a Russian, to hide a tape recorder and/or a camera in her bedroom, which could have then left him open to blackmail.21
Keeler’s version of events as it was to appear in the spiked tabloid article goes on to suggest that she was seeing both Profumo and Ivanov at the same time, with the two lovers narrowly missing each other as they came and went. The piece finishes with Keeler stating that someone had asked her to find out when the Americans would give nuclear weapons to Germany and that while she would not say in the paper who that was, she felt it was her duty to tell security officials.
Denning says Keeler also told Detective Sergeant Burrows this version of events when he contacted her about being a witness in the Edgecombe trial.
According to the report, Ward found out that Keeler had spoken to the press on 26 January 1963, and that he did what he could to stop publication of the article, including contacting Astor and his counsel Rees-Davies. Rees-Davies went to the Solicitor-General who in turn passed the matter onto the Attorney-General, who requested a meeting with Profumo.
Next, Denning turned his attention to criticisms levelled at the police over the incident. He establishes that the police operate independently of the Home Office, and that the private lives of individuals are not of concern unless the security of the country is endangered, and then it would be correct to contact the Security Service. Denning also explains the role of Special Branch, which is to deal with subversive or terrorist organisations, offences against the security of the state and to keep a watch on ports. Special Branch and the Security Service work in cooperation with each other, he explains.
According to Denning, on 26 January 1963, Keeler told Burrows that Ward was procuring girls, that she had associated with Profumo and that a request had been made for information about atomic secrets. Burrows thought this was a matter for Special Branch and an appointment was made for 1 February 1963, with Keeler. Burrows was due to attend this meeting along with Detective-Inspector Morgan of Special Branch and Sergeant Howard of the drug squad. However, the meeting was cancelled by the Commander of Special Brach and never took place. This was because of the press speculation that could occur if Keeler was seen to be (or spoke about being) interviewed by Special Branch.
In this chapter, Denning concedes that there was then some ‘failure in co-ordination’22 between the police and Special Branch as Keeler was not interviewed by the police, and an appointment made with Ward by the drug squad, at which Ward failed to show, was not chased up either. While Special Branch appeared to see that this was primarily a criminal matter rather than a security one, Denning accepts that an eye should still have been kept on the security issues.23
Denning also draws attention to Ward calling Marylebone Lane station himself to report the theft of potentially sensitive photos taken at the Cliveden swimming pool, showing both him and Profumo with women, including Keeler. The pictures included one image of the well-known wrestling match, with Keeler perched on Profumo’s shoulders. Ward suggested that it was Paul Mann that had stolen these images, potentially in order to sell them to the press. Ward apparently told the police the photos and the fact that Keeler had sold her story to the Sunday Pictorial could bring down the government.24 Here Denning says Special Branch acted correctly and brought the matter to the Security Service, with the responsibility to take the situation further resting there.
As Denning continued through the events, he turned to discuss the role of the legal representatives of Ward, Profumo and Astor, who were all worried about their reputations. With Keeler’s story sold to the press, and Keeler due to become a witness in the Edgecombe trial, it was likely they might each be named in the papers. Negotiations were entered into to persuade Keeler not to honour her contract with the Sunday Pictorial, which Denning explains would be lawful if Keeler received a sum that could be considered fair, rather than a compensation fee that could be considered as extortion. However, negotiations fell apart over who had offered what and Denning says he could not resolve as to exactly what had happened.
He does say, however, that Keeler was unlikely to be asking for too high a figure as extortion, because if she had wanted to, she could easily have kept the ‘Darling’ letter and used that to do it herself.
Denning does then show Keeler some sympathy, asking people not to judge her as she was young, and had, since the age of 16, been caught up in a sinful environment.25
Since no compensation was decided upon, Denning says Keeler went and signed the Sunday Pictorial proofs on 8 February 1963.
Perhaps a large part of the public interest in the Profumo scandal is the idea that much went on behind the closed doors of the establishment. The Denning Report shows us at least one example of the machinations of Parliament, explaining that it is an accepted convention that ministers that believe they may need legal help can ask the advice of the Law Officers, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General. The report says that on 28 January 1963, the counsel for Ward spoke to the Solicitor-General about the article that might name Astor and Profumo. The Solicitor-General then spoke to the Attorney-General who decided it was important enough to summon Profumo to his house at 11.00 pm.
According to the report, at this initial meeting, Profumo stuck to his story that Keeler was merely an acquaintance and no sexual impropriety had taken place. Denning records that in this meeting the war minister went as far as trying to discredit Keeler as a drug addict who had been sleeping with West Indians and was short of money, and that his use of ‘darling’ in a letter saying he could not attend a cocktail party was a consequence of him being married to an actress.26 Interesting then that Denning was still happy to describe Profumo in glowing terms, despite the fact he wasn’t above making up stories about Keeler to make her look like the guilty party.
Denning also explains that the role of the Chief Whip is to keep up the good name of the government and its ministers, and therefore conversations between the Law Officers and the Chief Whip are necessary. But since Profumo said he was happy to pursue legal action if anyone published what he claimed were false allegations about him, the Attorney-General and the Chief Whip were prepared to accept his protestations of innocence. Clearly Denning laid no blame at the feet of the government reps at this meeting.
With this in mind, Denning turns to answer the question of why, when Profumo had said he would take legal action, he didn’t do so when a subscription-only newsletter called Westminster Confidential did print a story not-so-subtly linking him with both Keeler and Ivanov on 8 March 1963. Denning explains that this was because Profumo’s legal advisor and the Attorney-General decided that the newsletter had too small a circulation (around 200) and that they would wait for a larger publication to run the story, and because they did not want to draw attention to the other scandal contained in its pages that concerned someone else. How selfless!
With several interested parties hoping to stop Keeler’s version of events being made public, for those following the story, it wasn’t too much of a leap to wonder who benefitted from Keeler’s disappearance and non-attendance at the Edgecombe trial and if that person, or persons, may have arranged for her to travel overseas, willingly or otherwise. Denning addressed this public concern by stating in his findings that Paul Mann took Keeler to Spain in car along with Kim Proctor, thus making clear that the government or its ministers were not responsible. Within the report, however, he does allude to the fact that in early February 1963, Ward had thought of the idea and raised it with Paul Mann.27
Denning’s questioning of Paul Mann uncovered Mann’s explanation that, at the time of the trip to Spain, Keeler was distressed because she believed two men had been paid to hurt her.28 Thus, the three of them travelled across France into Spain and got to a remote fishing village and then to Madrid without realising the consequences of leaving the UK. Making the point that the three friends had very little money between them, Denning then explains that a deal was negotiated for the story of Keeler’s disappearance and that the newspapers arranged for the return trip home. Once back in the UK, Keeler attended Scotland Yard and the Central Criminal court to pay the £40 forfeit for not attending the Edgecombe trial.
Because of speculation that Profumo or Astor may have been involved in Keeler’s disappearance, Denning asked for bank accounts and other financial details from both men. Then, employing an expert accountant, Denning says the accounts were examined for any payments that might link the lord and the minister to Keeler or Mann. Denning states that he found no evidence that Mann or Keeler received any money related to her disappearance and that there was no evidence linking Profumo or Astor to it either.29
Denning also addressed the role the press played in the Profumo scandal. With regards to the front page of the Daily Express on 15 March 1963, Denning reported that the Daily Express had told him that the juxtaposition of the two stories – Keeler’s disappearance and Profumo’s resignation – was entirely coincidental. While accepting this reasoning unquestionably, it seems, he admitted that the move had caused quite a stir.
The report also discusses the meeting of the five ministers that followed the discussion in the Commons on 21 March 1963, in which Wigg and Castle brought up the rumours surrounding Profumo using Parliamentary Privilege. This was the meeting attended by the Chief Whip, Leader of the House Macleod, the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General and William Deedes, which Profumo and his solicitor were later called to attend so that Profumo’s personal statement could be drafted. Denning says that this meeting was not pre-arranged, and that it was organic.
Denning also quashes the suggestion that this meeting was in fact an investigation into the truth (or not) of the rumours, which he says it was not.30
The statement made at this meeting went on, of course, to prove to be false, however. Denning mentions in this chapter that Valerie Hobson had excused her husband’s conduct that evening because of his use of sleeping pills and tiredness from being roused and working on the statement at such an unusual hour; if it wasn’t for these circumstances, Hobson told Denning, her husband would not have made the statement.31 Thank goodness that Denning managed to find an ‘independent’ witness to clear up why Profumo lied!
Despite Profumo’s statement being false, Denning says the Prime Minister believed it was the truth. This was not because he had himself spoken to Profumo but rather that he had been kept fully informed of the matter by the Chief Whip and his Private Secretary. Macmillan had also thought that if there ‘was anything in it’, talking to the Attorney-General and the Chief Whip, who were friends of his own age, would have revealed as such.32
Denning reinforces his belief that the PM did not know that Profumo was lying when he issued his statement to the House, dealing in his report with an incident in early March. In the incident, Profumo was reported as saying to a friend that he’d become involved with a girl and that he’d written her a letter the Sunday Pictorial had got hold of. Because the paper could print it any day, he’d had to confess to Valerie, the PM and his boss. As damning as this sounds, within the investigation Denning maintains that he was satisfied that both Mr Profumo’s friend and the Conservative MP misinterpreted what Mr Profumo said, and that the war minister had meant he’d got into a difficult situation because of a friendship with a girl, and that he’d had to tell his wife, the Chief Whip and the PM’s secretary about it (rather than the PM himself). Denning says Profumo hadn’t confessed to an actual affair at all, he closed the paragraph stating that there was nothing that suggested that the Prime Minister knew Profumo was lying in his statement to the House.33 Given what Profumo said, it does sound like an easy ‘misinterpretation’ to make.
Another rumour Denning addressed in his investigation was that the security services were so worried about Profumo’s relationship with Keeler (and presumably therefore Ivanov and Ward) that it had sent anonymous letters to the war minister’s wife. Because of this, Denning says, on 27 March, the Home Secretary met with the Commissioner of the Police and the Permanent Under-Secretary of State. At this meeting, Denning says the security services said there was no truth to the rumour, and that since Ivanov had left the UK, any security issues had been resolved, and that Ward’s personal life was not its business.
It was at this meeting, of course, that Robertson tells us that the Home Secretary then instructed the police to find another reason to prosecute Ward if it couldn’t be under the Official Secrets Act. Denning phrases it slightly differently in his report, however, with the Home Secretary asking the Commissioner if there was interest from the police, to which the reply was that there might be grounds for a criminal prosecution of Ward if the police were able to get all the details. The outcome of the conversation, according to Denning, was that the Commissioner then thought further about prosecuting Ward. Which of course led to a CID investigation into allegations that Ward was living off immoral earnings, and the subsequent interviews with Keeler during which her statement said she had had intercourse with Profumo. The investigation also allowed for Ward’s phone to be tapped and the questioning of those he knew and worked with.
Once the investigation into Ward, and questioning of his friends and patients, began, understandably, Ward was concerned, although Denning describes the actions Ward then took as out of the ordinary within his report. However, if it were your own reputation and livelihood being threatened, you might not find such actions unusual. Ward telephoned and then met the PM’s Private Secretary to discuss his concerns. During this meeting, Denning says that the main objective of the visit was stop the police inquiry and to blackmail the government by threatening that, unless the inquiries were dropped, he would expose Profumo’s affair with Keeler. Although it’s worth noting that Ward was never charged with blackmail, and this is just Denning’s opinion, even if it is stated as if it were fact.
Ward also wrote of his concerns to the Home Secretary and received a reply that made it clear that the police do not act under his direction.
However, Denning tells us that Ward continued to send letters that eventually led to questions about security being raised by Harold Wilson and resulted in Macmillan instructing the Lord Chancellor to begin an inquiry on 30 May. It was the knowledge of this upcoming investigation that led to Profumo’s confession that he did sleep with Keeler and that his statement to the House had been untrue. And thus, on 21 June, Denning was asked to undertake his inquiry.
Towards the end of his report, Denning turns once again to defend the Security Service, whose role in the Profumo Affair, he reminds the reader, was only to protect the country against Russia and its agents. He concludes that the Service kept to this role and considered that the moral (or immoral) behaviour of Profumo was not their concern. And while Profumo’s character defect (just the one in his apparently flawless personality) may have made him a security risk at one time, when the security services discovered the information, Profumo had ended the affair and Ivanov had returned to Russia.34
Denning examines all the contact the Security Service had with Ward in 1961 and 1962, when the Service decided Ward was not a security risk in himself. It did, however, take steps to warn Profumo about his relationship with Ivanov and consider if Ward offered a way in to Captain Ivanov, who might be convinced to defect. Any criticism of the Service for its conduct over this period is wrong, says Denning, because during 1962 the Security Service was watching Ward and Ivanov and keeping the Foreign Office informed.35
Denning continues his examination of the events in 1963, which is when he believes that on 28 and 29 January the Security Service first learnt of an association between Profumo and Keeler. Here Denning dismisses Ward’s claims that he had told the Service as early as July 1961. Instead, he is content that since Ivanov had left the country, and Profumo was not sharing a mistress with the Russian and that there was no evidence that information had passed from Profumo to Keeler, the Service was correct to accept there was no risk to security.
There was also no security risk the next month, when on 7 February, it was reported Keeler had reported in her police statement that Ward had asked her to discover atomic secrets. He says the Security Service dismissed Keeler’s claims.36
Denning reported that he was happy with how the Security Service had handled any risks and reported to those concerned, taking all reasonable steps to protect the country.37 He stated that there was no evidence to support that there had been a security leak.
Having established that there was no security risk, Denning does ask who can be held responsible for what had happened. He considers the culpability of the Security Service, the police and the press but concludes that ultimately Profumo should bear the primary responsibility because he entered into the affair with Keeler and lied about it in the House of Commons.
And while Denning may have held prejudiced, misguided and even incorrect opinions on the Profumo Affair, on this one point at least, he was spot on.