Major ducks media; Currie spills more beans

JOHN MAJOR remained silent last night about his four-year affair with Edwina Currie, after his ex-lover attacked his ''atrocious'' behaviour and ''evil'' Back-to-Basics campaign.

The former Prime Minister was expected to speak in public for the first time about the affair at a press conference ahead of a charity dinner in Dallas, Texas, yesterday evening, according to the event's organisers.

But a spokesman for Mr Major said although he was addressing the dinner he would not be attending the press conference, nor would he make a personal statement.

His place at the press conference was being taken by Lord McColl, Mr Major's personal physician, chief surgeon at Guy's Hospital in London and UK chairman of the Mercy Ships charity.

It was to have been the first public appearance by the ex-premier since Mrs Currie revealed details of their affair last weekend, to be published in her diaries tomorrow.

Although Mr Major has issued a written statement in which he said he was ''ashamed'' about the liaison, the press conference was expected to be an opportunity for Mr Major to respond to Mrs Currie's criticism of him in the past week.

The affair began in 1984 when Mr Major was a government whip and Mrs Currie was a backbencher.

Mrs Currie held a series of broadcast interviews yesterday in which she launched a blistering attack on her former lover and his Government.

She insisted he wanted the affair, to continue but she ended it in 1988 when Mr Major got a Cabinet job in Margaret Thatcher's government.

Mrs Currie, who was sacked as a health minister, said although she did not want to end their relationship it was ''running practical risks'', particularly because the IRA were ''chasing us around''.

''For John to give his bodyguards the slip would have been to put him in a seriously dangerous situation,'' she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

''It just wasn't worth it and it was getting much harder to find dates when we were free and we could get together. So it just seemed to me unwise to continue I wrote and I said so.''

She added: ''We didn't stop because we didn't stop caring about each other, or enjoying each other's company - we stopped because I thought it was time to stop.

''I didn't want to - and I can tell you, he may say now he was ashamed of it, but he wasn't ashamed of it at the time and he wanted it to go on.''