Let's go to your room
By Lewis Panther
A MARRIED Cabinet minister made a sleazy pass at a Blair Babe during Party conference, offering to boost her career in return for sex, a sensational new book claims.
Glamorous former MP Fiona Jones says he tried to seduce her with the sick offer: "Do you know what I can do for you?"
She claims the politician—who is currently a well-known Cabinet minister and was then already a powerful and influential party figure—was clearly aroused when he made his move in a lift at the conference hotel.
"Shall we go to your room?" he asked her.
Now Mrs Jones, 48, who lost her seat in 2001, plans to blow the lid off New Labour's female-friendly image and tell all about the astonishing sex-for-jobs culture in the Commons.
In her book she also claims the slimy politician:
Asked for a KISS in front of a room full of dignitaries, sparking rumours of an affair;
Left FLIRTY messages on her answering machine;
COLD-SHOULDERED her the morning after she spurned his advances;
SNUBBED her when she was accused of rigging election expenses.
And Mrs Jones claims extra-marital affairs are rife in Westminster—allegations that will rock the political world just two months before a general election.
Indecent
In one passage that will send shudders down the spines of party spin doctors, Jones reveals how the politician made a pass at her on the second day of the party conference in the Metropole Hotel in Brighton.
She said: "I walked into the lift and he followed me. Then suddenly he gave me a kiss and added, ‘Shall we have a chat in your room?'.
"It was obvious that he wanted sex. He was close enough for me to tell he was aroused.
"I was shocked and turned him down, only to be told, ‘Do you know what I can do for you?'. It was clear what he meant. He had the power to make or break careers."
But the married mum of two had already seen the warning signs that some kind of indecent proposal was heading her way.
Just after she was elected she famously stood next to Tony Blair in a photo call of women MPs and the Blair Babes tag was born.
And she quickly realised she had entered a world of double-dealing, jealousy and infidelity.
She first started getting unwanted attention from her influential admirer at a constituency rally.
Mrs Jones claims she had to tell him to stop "simpering" over her while ignoring a room full of dignitaries. She said: "He wasn't even discreet. He very loudly said, ‘Oh, hello Fiona, what a pleasure to see you —don't I get a kiss?' before kissing me on both cheeks. He was acting like a lovesick schoolboy."
But the 46-year-old ex-MP for Newark, already knew she'd caught his eye. She said: "Before that meeting he'd left a particularly gushing message on my answerphone that had my husband raising his eyebrows."
Chris added: "I thought it was odd that the he should be leaving a message like that."
Mrs Jones claims his behaviour fuelled a rumour that she was having an affair with him which plagued the rest of her career.
"It was all right for him. He just toddled off back to London, but I was the one who had to put up with all the malicious gossip."
But it was only when the top politician propositioned her at the party conference that she realised his true ambitions.
She added: "I can accept him leching at me, but when it goes onto him offering positions for sexual favours—then that's a different issue."
And the morning after she spurned his advances, she was given the cold shoulder.
"I bumped into him on a photoshoot along the beach.
"He didn't acknowledge me at first and talked to the press officer as if I wasn't there, saying, ‘What's she doing here?'
"Considering how he had acted towards me in the lift the day before it made me realise he wasn't happy about not getting his own way.
"I told my husband —and that I'd had a problem with him the day before. Chris was obviously annoyed. He muttered something like, ‘What a b******', but we couldn't cause a stink—it was the first Labour Party conference in power for years."
However the day after, the political heavyweight made his conference speech—and heaped praise on Fiona.
She said: "The speech had obviously been written in advance and he just decided to go ahead with it."
But it earned her the wrath of her fellow Blair Babes.
Mrs Jones said: "He said I was ‘a brilliant MP'. I was astonished at the compliment and flattered but it caused tremendous animosity towards me from my female colleagues.
"One jealous MP even confronted me and made it clear she didn't like the attention I was getting."
Fiona's agent Des Whicher last night recalled: "I noticed he was paying too much attention to Fiona. At that time it did seem like she was being schooled for promotion. She was certainly on the way up and it wasn't just because of her work."
But the statesman's fervour cooled after that episode—and so did Mrs Jones's career when she was tried for fiddling £9,000 election expenses.
Fiona was asked to get character references but her former admirer claimed he couldn't help.
In a letter, he wrote: "In normal circumstances I would be happy to provide you with a character reference. But, because of my position as (title deleted), I am sorry to say that this would not be appropriate.
"I hope you understand—and my inability to provide you with such a reference says nothing about what I know of your character (all good!)— so please don't be offended."
Fiona goes on: "Even though I cleared my name at appeal, he has hardly ever spoken to me since.
"I don't want to appear bitter, as if I have some axe to grind, but he could have done more."
And still the rumours refused to die down. She even became the victim of a poison-pen campaign.
A postcard arrived at her family home just outside Lincoln weeks before she was due to defend her seat in the 2001 election.
The letter attached to it, which was addressed to radio presenter Chris, said: "Your wife is committing adultery with (name deleted). We feel you ought to know. Newark doesn't want or need her. Do you?"
Her misery was made worse when she lost her seat at the last election.
"Maybe I would have fared better if I had slept with him," she mused.
Flirting
But she said lots of the rumours flying around parliament ARE true.
She explained: "The House is rife with affairs. It's a hotbed of ambitious people who want to get on and will do anything to get on.
"When Labour came to power with 101 women MPs they had to given them some junior minister posts.
"It wasn't written down, but that's what was going to happen. So the flirting and bargaining was going both ways."
And she said that lots of receptions and boozing just fuel the culture of bad behaviour.
"People can be drinking from the middle of the afternoon until the middle of the night when there is a late vote—you have to wonder if they are making good judgments."
However, she isn't planning to reserve the criticism in her book for just one man.
She slammed Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott as "uncouth and ill tempered".
She said Gordon Brown "hasn't got the charisma" to be PM and claimed Charles Clarke has a chance but is "too fat". Of David Blunkett she said: "I didn't like him. But there's no doubt he's good at his job."
She claims Jack Straw is vain and even said Tony Blair is "too perfect".
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