Former MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn wanted reporters banned from investigating politicians’ private lives

Sir Nicholas Fairbairn

Efforts by former Perthshire MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn to hide his private life from his constituents have been uncovered.

In newly revealed documents Sir Nicholas, who died in 1995, demands reporters be banned from investigating his private life and that of other politicians.

In the correspondence to the Commons standards watchdog which has been placed in the National Archives, the maverick MP called for press freedom to be “restricted”.

Fairbairn, who is the subject of child sexual abuse allegations in England and Scotland, claimed politicians should be protected from having their sexual behaviour exposed.

“Adultery and fornication have been the habit of most of humankind since Adam and Eve first committed the latter,” he wrote a few months before his death.

“Is there some ethical reason why those in public life should be holier than thou? Should they have the piety of monks and nuns?

“The House of Commons has already been diminished by the increasing habit of party organisations selecting candidates who are ‘squeaky clean’.”

The revelations come hard on the heels of an accusation by a woman who said Fairbairn raped her when she was four.  (more...)

Former MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn wanted reporters banned from investigating politicians’ private lives