Tory gay love nest exposed
Scallywag issue 24, 1994
A conversation recorded two years ago in a fashionable West End night club could prove highly embarrassing for the Tory Party's many influential homosexual MPs. An eye witness, Anthony Lillis, who was present at a gay party in a Dolphin Square apartment spotted various MPs in compromising positions, and later confided in a contact who has given a full record of what was said to Scallywag. The following reads as a telling indictment of Conservative hypocrisy and perversion.
It all happened in a Westminster flat. Rent boys, homosexual orgies, visiting Tory politicians who solicited sex during all-night parties. From time to time the whole crowd was there. It read like a who's who of the party unfaithful. Michael Portillo, Peter Lilley, David Nicholson, Edward Leigh, Alistair Cooke [Lord Lexden], Michael Brown and many more. The glitterati of the Conservative Party, secret gays to a man, gathered at Robert Banks' Dolphin Square apartment for long sessions of debauchery where young boys were devoured as avariciously as the champagne and capons.
Fluttering like a highly cultured man-servant between the various guests was the inimitable Derek Laud, the PR doyen of Ludgate Communications, willing, as ever, to gratify the lusts of the politically powerful whenever required.
Drunk
On the evening of November 14th 1992 it was just another party at Robert Banks' place. But this time he had invited a rising young star called Anthony Lillis, who was employed at the time as his researcher. Good looking, bright, extrovert, ambitious and conveniently bisexual, Lillis had all the potential of bring a full time member of the clique. But he had one fatal failing that no one had recognised. He was hopelessly indiscreet.
The chances are that if Lillis had not been invited on that night, then the sordid activities within the inner sanctum of Dolphin Square would have remained a closely guarded secret of the Peterhouse Set. It quickly became apparent to the other guests assembled there that a grave mistake had been made. He may have been bisexual, but he objected to what he saw and complained bitterly to Robert Banks.
Banks was given instructions to 'get rid of him'. So, at about 1 am, the young researcher was shown the door and bundled into a taxi.
Sacked
The following morning there was hell to pay. Lillis was summoned into Robert Banks' office and given a grilling. He was told in no uncertain terms to forget what he had seen, to suppress any objections and, above all, to keep his mouth shut or it would spell the end of his political career. He was then promptly fired. Or rather, moved out of harm's way, into the service of Tim Sainsbury, where he remained until mid-May 1994.
Lillis, who is not averse to talking to journalists 'off the record', was uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the real reasons why Robert Banks sacked him. Except that shortly afterwards he had got extremely drunk and had talked sourly and at length to colleagues in a bar. This witnessed extract is a verbatim account of what was said. Our contact is still employed in a sensitive Government post and therefore will be referred to simply as Q.
Scallywag has had three conversations with Anthony Lillis since. On the first occasion, we stated that we had been given information that he had been a witness to certain events at a Westminster flat, and that if this were true it could be worth money to him. Lillis did not deny that he had been in such a flat and was interested in the prospect of money. He agreed to meet journalists from Scallywag the following week. On the evening of Saturday 14th May Anthony Lillis threw a party. He had just left his job with Tim Sainsbury and had invited various Parliamentary contacts. During the evening he joked about being approached by Scallywag.
However, when we telephoned him the following week, he was a very different man. He responded nervously and evasively to our questions and point blank refused to meet. His voice was extremely shaky. It seemed quite apparent that he had received a heavy warning from someone. Nevertheless, we persisted. When we said that a transcript was in our possession of a conversation that took place two years before that exposed the true reason behind his sacking, Lillis panicked.
He denied any recollection of such a conversation. He asked repeatedly who had given us the transcript. He threatened legal action should we decide to print. And finally he admitted that he had attended such a party at the Dolphin Square flat of Robert Banks.
Quote:Q: It was a bit sudden wasn't it? I mean, er, didn't you get any warning?
Lillis: I just didn't get on with the little shit. It was building up for a long time. Still, they'll sort me out with something, I know they will.
Q: How can you be so sure?
Lillis: Ah ha! Can't say. This is one secret I'm going to keep.
Q: Oh, come on Tony, you can tell me for Christ's sake. I'm not going to say anything. Come on.
Lillis: Er, look, just let's say I saw too much.
Q: Go on, what do you mean? Anthony.
Lillis: Look, if I tell you, you've got to keep it under wraps, right? This is my future at stake, okay, not a word. This is political dynamite.
Q: Fine.
Lillis: You know Robert's party?
Q: Yeah.
Lillis: Well, for a start, it was an all male affair. In fact, I don't really know why he invited me. But there were a lot of young boys knocking about.
Q: You're joking! Who was there.
Lillis: Well, Edward Leigh, that fellow Ian Fipps [sic], David Nicholson - he was bloody outrageous, Alistair Cooke... Hey, even Portillo. And later Peter Lilley turned up. And, you know, the rumours about him and Portillo are definitely true. I got pretty pissed. Er, anyway, they were all over each other. Nicholson went off with one of the boys. I started making a few remarks to Robert. Didn't go down too well, then the next morning he was furious. "You're not hired to pass an opinion," all that kind of crap.
Q: Then he fired you.
Lillis: Yeah, after a few...
Q: It's unbelievable. It's just...
Lillis: Look, just forget that I told you, okay. Em, I don't want...
Q: Don't worry.
Q knew that Lillis was due to go to a party at Robert Banks' Dolphin Square flat. Q was also aware of rumours circulating about several similar parties and was thinking at the time of selling the story to the papers. A change in direction in Q's career discouraged our contact from doing so. And the transcript was buried until Scallywag picked up the story in February 1994 and over the subsequent four months. Q was already a valuable informer, but chose not to offer Scallywag the transcript until Anthony Lillis had left the employ of Tim Sainsbury, who holds the purse strings behind the Tory party.