Pubdate: Sun, 16 Oct 2005
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Ned Temko, chief political correspondent

KEEP QUIET ON DRUGS, PORTILLO TELLS CAMERON

My confession was a mistake, says former cabinet minister as pressure mounts
on Tory frontrunner

Former cabinet minister Michael Portillo yesterday backed David Cameron's
refusal to address questions about alleged drug use, saying his own
experience in politics had convinced him this was the only way of preventing
a media 'witch-hunt'. Portillo expressed his support for the Tory leadership
candidate's stand ahead of this week's crucial first round of voting for a
successor to Michael Howard. Cameron's surge to the front rank of the race
has been overshadowed by growing pressure in the past week to say whether or
not he has taken drugs.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis - who has a lead among declared MPs
but who surveys suggest could be beaten by Cameron in the final vote among
party members - waded into the controversy yesterday. He told a television
interviewer that anyone who had used drugs 'recently' was not qualified to
be party leader and said that politicians should offer 'straight answers' on
such questions.

Portillo, who sought to defuse reports that he was gay with a 1999 interview
acknowledging 'homosexual experiences' in his youth, told The Observer that
he had learnt that such admissions were 'not the end of the matter, but the
beginning of a witch-hunt'.

'That's why I think that David Cameron is right. Once there is a fact on the
record, the newspapers know they can print anything - true or false,' he
said.

The media would inevitably approach 'so-called friends' for stories that
would likely be full of false allegations. 'That's what happened to me,'
Portillo said.

In Cameron's case, he was convinced that, after any reply on the drugs
issue, the media response would be 'if that's what he admitted, there must
be a great deal more'.

Portillo's support was echoed by broadcasting mogul Michael Green, Cameron's
boss at the television company Carlton in the six years before he entered
Parliament.

Singling out the Daily Mail for criticism of its coverage of the drugs
question, Green said: 'I think he is absolutely right to react as he has. I
just think it's the Daily Mail gone mad.

'The Mail is demanding an answer to a question he correctly won't answer.'
If he did, Green said, 'where would it stop?'

Green added that he was personally convinced that Cameron, who headed
Carlton's corporate communications department and was headed for 'a position
at board level', was not using drugs. 'The idea that he is some kind of
druggie is absolutely bizarre,' he told The Observer

All of the leadership candidates - Cameron, Davis, former Chancellor Kenneth
Clarke and shadow foreign secretary Liam Fox - were preparing for a final
pre-election hustings in front of Tory MPs tomorrow.

Cameron and Davis had a clear edge among those of the 198 MPs who have
publicly declared for a candidate, leaving Clarke and Fox in a scramble for
third place. The candidate with the fewest number of votes will be
eliminated. A second ballot, set for Thursday, will then reduce the field to
a final two.

Cameron told The Observer at the end of a week dominated by the drugs issue
that he felt he had 'come through it well. Every survey we've seen suggests
that people understand and support the decision I've taken - and reports
from the constituencies have also been extremely encouraging'.

A senior Cameron campaign aide added that the MPs supporting him remained
strongly on board. 'Even though a few dozen MPs haven't yet declared, the
fact is virtually all of them will have decided how to vote by now,' he
added. The aim, at least for Davis and Cameron, would be to avoid miscues at
the hustings. 
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