Tory MEP who smuggled drugs and porn quits

Tory MEP who smuggled drugs and porn quits

This article is more than 26 years old

Spencer vows not to contest safe seat in June as whip is withdrawn

Lucy Ward and Stephen Bates in Brussels

Mon 1 Feb 1999 03.44 CET

Share

Tom Spencer, the Conservative Euro-MP fined for importing cocaine, cannabis and gay pornography, last night bowed to pressure from his party leadership and announced he would stand down as candidate in European elections in June.

The decision came after a day in which the Surrey MEP, the Tories' former leader at Strasbourg, admitted the allegations but clung on, despite being suspended from his party.

An investigation into his conduct by the Tories' as yet unconvened ethics and integrity committee was due to begin today.

Mr Spencer is now expected to see out his term an MEP, though the Conservative whip has been withdrawn and he will be excluded from all Tory group activities at the European Parliament. Tory sources suggested he would escape expulsion from the party.

Last night, he issued a statement saying he had decided to step down after discussing the situation with his wife, colleagues, friends and supporters in the party, and finally with the Tory party chairman, Michael Ancram.

He said: "I have concluded it is in the best interests of all concerned that I should withdraw from the party's list for the next European elections."

Mr Ancram responded in a statement: "I welcome his decision to resign from the Conservative list, which I believe is in the best interests of himself, his family and the party.

"I would like to pay tribute to him for the important work he has done on behalf of the party in Europe over the years. I hope he may now be given the space to rebuild his life."

Central Office sources were claiming last night that the mere threat of investigation by the three-strong ethics committee, chaired by Elizabeth Appleby QC, had daunted Mr Spencer into bowing to the inevitable.

The 50-year-old MEP, who has two daughters and a stepdaughter aged from 17 to 22, paid a £550 penalty after customs officers at Heathrow airport found an illegal gay pornographic video and two cannabis cigarettes in his baggage on January 20.

He revealed yesterday that he told customs he was also carrying cocaine in his suitcase after officers failed to find the class A drug.

"In Amsterdam, I was given a small plastic package in a social situation. In the chaos of leaving I just threw it into my suitcase," he said yesterday. "When I was phoned by customs and went to be interviewed, they hadn't found the cocaine and I said - voluntarily because I didn't want to be accused of dishonesty - 'There is something else here.' I then hunted through and found it for them.

"My lawyer, who was with me, thought I was completely off the wall. It was a very small amount. They said they were going to exercise their right to ignore it. I should have just thrown it away. I don't take cocaine, it's not my scene. It was an act of supreme folly."

It is believed that Mr Spencer's decision to step down came after the man he was with in Amsterdam was traced by the press.

Tory MEPs closed ranks around their former leader before he announced his decision to go, though few privately held out much hope that he would survive to fight the June elections.

Mr Spencer, a genial, bearded figure, had made little secret of his disenchantment with the party's increasingly Eurosceptical stance, or his belief that Britain would join the single currency.

He is unlikely to have a vast reservoir of allies to call on, either at Westminster or in the European Parliament, though he had been placed second on the Conservatives' south-east regional list for the June election, virtually guaranteeing his re-election.

Elected leader of the group after the 1994 elections, he was not widely popular and stood down 18 months ago to become chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee