Merchant of sleaze threatens more to come

The Tory election campaign became submerged in sleaze allegations yesterday after Michael Heseltine nudged the ministerial aide Piers Merchant to do the decent thing, and stand down as a candidate.

Mr Merchant, 46, a father-of-two, became the latest target of a media feeding-frenzy after he was accused of adultery with a teenage nightclub hostess in yesterday's Sun.

But the Tories' sleaze nightmare is by no means over. Max Clifford, the public relations agent, warned yesterday that he was planning to release details of a much bigger scandal.

"I can tell you that it is about sex and corruption," he said. "This story is going to come out. There are more factors involved than Max Clifford simply pressing a button. People are having to think long and hard; people are having to deliberate over it. Today they may want to do it and tomorrow they may not.

"But if they do, it is a story I may want to bring out in the run-up to the election. In an ideal situation, it will come out just before the election. It is a much bigger story than the one you are reading about today.

"I do not want to comment on the level of the person involved but, to my mind, it is a much bigger story."

Mr Heseltine's encouragement of Mr Merchant to resign immediately revived interest in the cases of Neil Hamilton and Michael Brown, two of the MPs involved in the Commons cash-for-questions row.

With the Tories still lagging 24 percentage points behind Labour in The Independent's latest Harris poll, they tried yesterday to attract interest in their "Green Manifesto".

But reporters wrecked the party's main press conference by asking why Mr Merchant was being offered for sacrifice when Mr Hamilton remained in place. Mr Heseltine told the Today programme on Radio 4 that claims about Mr Merchant were "an embarrassment", and the party leadership was "bound to feel let down".

He then added the deadly invitation to the Beckenham MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Peter Lilley, the Secretary of State for Social Security, to do the decent thing: "I haven't the slightest doubt that Piers Merchant, his family and his association will want to consider very carefully the consequences of what has happened for the party at large."

Having subtly offered Mr Merchant a pearl-handled revolver, the Deputy Prime Minister refused to spell out that he was inviting him to use it on himself. "You must listen to what I've just said very carefully," he added. John Major, on a constituency visit to Cambridgeshire, said that he agreed with him.

Mr Merchant's constituency association members, who had been vociferous in their support, decided last night that the executive committee would meet early next week.

On the World at One, Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, tried desperately to redirect questions to the central issues of the campaign, saying vainly: "We can turn to the real issues which affect the future of our country, the future of every family in this land, and we can concentrate on those, and put this to one side for it to be dealt with by Mr Merchant, by his family and by his constituency association."

He was then asked about the discrepancy between the resignation of Beaconsfield MP Tim Smith, which had been welcomed, and the decision of other MPs to hold on.

Mr Hamilton, MP for Tatton, yesterday maintained his dogged stand, repudiating a story in the Mail on Sunday about brown envelopes being stuffed for him with cash from Mohamed al Fayed.