GAY MEP GUILTY OF IMPORTING PORN AND DRUGS

Conservative MEP Tom Spencer's political career may be over after he
confessed yesterday to importing cocaine, cannabis and gay erotica for
his personal use.

The MEP for the Guildford area, formerly the party's leader at
Strasbourg, admitted that he had been fined A3550 for importing the
gay porn and 1.5 grammes of cocaine and cannabis into Heathrow
Airport. He has been suspended from the party whip and will probably
not be allowed to stand at the European elections in June, according
to party sources.

'I've always been gay,' he told The Observer yesterday. 'When I
married Liz, she knew all about it. It was like marrying your best
friend. It sounds strange, but we have been very happy and have two
daughters, and a third from Liz's first marriage.'

Two weeks ago, he said, he was in Amsterdam, where someone made him a
gift of the gay porn and a tiny package containing the cocaine and the
cannabis.

'In a moment of hubris, I accepted them. It was lunatic. It's not part
of my life.

'This,' he gestured to a Wild Havana cigar he was smoking, 'is my only
addiction.'

Customs intercepted his bag and discovered the drugs, the porn, a
sexual accessory and an extremely large black leather suit, complete
with waistcoat and hood. Spencer is over 6ft tall and weighs a good 18
stone.

The bearded MEP quoted Anatole France: 'Of all sexual perversions,
chastity is the most peculiar.' Spencer said 'I'm not capable of it', and
laughed self-deprecatingly.

'I was called in to Customs. I wasn't charged, and they were very
courteous. I was fined A3550.'

Standard Customs procedure for 'compoundings' - their term for an
out-of-court settlement - is not to release names, but the story leaked.

Without prejudging the outcome of the ethics inquiry into Spencer,
Tory Central Office sources stressed that the committee has the power
to prevent him standing as a Conservative candidate in the European
elections.