Sleaze came back to haunt the Tories yesterday in the familiar guise of the MP, Mr Piers Merchant, who announced that he had resigned his seat in Beckenham, Kent, to "protect my family . . . from the intensive and continued tabloid intrusion into our private lives". The decision could pave the way for a return to Parliament for the former Tory MPs, Mr Michael Portillo or Mr Malcolm Rifkind, who lost their seats at the general election. The former governor of Hong Kong, Mr Chris Patten, might be persuaded to add his name to the list of candidates.
Mr Merchant became the focus of media attention earlier this year when the Sun and the News of the World published photographs of him sitting on a park bench kissing his 18-year-old researcher, Ms Anna Cox. During the election campaign he vehemently denied the allegations of an affair and was pictured days later in a broadly similar pose with his wife, Helen.
However, in the final days of the Tory Party conference last week further photographs of Mr Merchant with Ms Cox were printed in the British press.
In his statement of resignation, Mr Merchant said the media's intrusion into his private life seemed set to continue "indefinitely" and he wished to protect his family and Ms Cox, who had spent some time living with his family in recent months, from "further character assassination".
At the party's conference last week, the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, drew a clear distinction between the public and private lives of MPs when he insisted that politicians' private lives should remain just that - a private matter.
Mr Merchant's agent, Mr Geoffrey Gray, yesterday described Mr Merchant's resignation as "a very sad day for his family that he should be forced into this sort of action by the activities of the tabloid press and pressure of that sort". However, the Beckenham Conservative Association said last night that while Mr Merchant's resignation was a blow it was "inevitable" following the "unfortunate" press reports at the weekend.
Meanwhile, the former Tory MP, Mr Neil Hamilton, appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges yesterday, insisted he had "never" taken cash-for-questions "from Mr Mohamed al-Fayed or from anybody else". He described Mr al-Fayed as an "inveterate liar".
Mr Hamilton became embroiled in the cash-for-questions allegations following a 1994 report in the Guardian which said he received money from Mr alFayed, the owner of Harrods, in return for tabling questions in the House of Commons.
During his speech to the committee Mr Hamilton accused his main persecutor, Mr Mohamed al-Fayed, of illegally breaking into rival tycoon "Tiny" Rowland's Harrods safe deposit box.
The Harrods break-in allegations were made in a statement to Mr Hamilton's lawyers by the store's former security director, Mr Bob Loftus. They describe how Mr al-Fayed employed Mr Roy Hamilton, a locksmith, to break into Mr Rowland's box. According to the statement, Mr John Macnamara, the head of Harrods security, ordered closed circuit television cameras to be turned off, the locksmith broke into the safety box and it was sent to up Mr al-Fayed's office. Mr al-Fayed had the documents copied.
Last night Mr Rowland confirmed that he had complained to the police. Scotland Yard said it was investigating an allegation of theft.
Until 1995, two years after Mr al-Fayed and Mr Rowland were publicly reconciled after their battle over the ownership of Harrods, Mr Rowland had not visited the box for 20 years.
- (Additional reporting Guardian Service)