Mr Jeremy Thorpe is to meet his constituency executive tonight to discuss his political future as Liberal MP for North Devon after the conspiracy to murder charge which was laid against him yesterday.
The former Liberal leader appeared at Minehead magistrates╒ court in Somerset yesterday with three other men. The four were charged with conspiracy to murder the former male model, Mr Norman Scott. The offence was alleged to have taken place between October 1, 1968, and November 1, 1977, in Devon and elsewhere.
The three charged with Mr Thorpe were Mr David Holmes, aged 47, of Eaton Place, Westminster, London, Mr John Le Mesurier, aged 44, of Avalon, St Brides Major, Ogmore, near Bridgend, and Mr George Deakin, aged 35, of Dinas Baglin Road, Port Talbot.
It took 21 minutes for the four men to be charged that they conspired ╥together and with others╙ to murder Norman Scott, aged 37. After the hearing police stopped the traffic outside the court to allow the four to leave by car.
Last night Mr Thorpe was cheered by by-standers when he arrived at the North Devon Liberal Association╒s coffee evening at Lynton town hall. He told his constituents ╥I am still your MP ╤ and that╒s the way it is. I plan to continue keeping my public engagements ╤ and the private ones. I shall be at a flower show tomorrow and seeing party workers later. The fact that I am continuing my range of duties is indicative I am not saying whether I╒m staying or leaving.╙
Mr Thorpe appeared at 9.15 p.m. for the coffee evening. When Mr Thorpe, with his wife, Marion, arrived they were immediately surrounded by waiting reporters and television crews. But the former Liberal leader walked briskly towards the steps of the town hall building and brushed aside questions about his possible resignation.
Mr Thorpe shook hands with a few by-standers and then asked where his wife was. Mrs Thorpe had momentarily been lost in the crush. Hand in hand, they squeezed their way through the crowd up the stairs and into the hallway, to be greeted by local Liberal Party officials. There was a 50p admission charge for the coffee evening but a large notice on the door said: ╥No press admitted.╙
Mr Thorpe╒s political future is now a matter of intense concern to his parliamentary colleagues. They expect that tonight he will tell party workers in North Devon that he does not intend to resign but that he will not stand at the next general election.
Such an announcement will greatly relieve his parliamentary colleagues. They have no wish to prejudge the outcome of a conspiracy trial but they are conscious that the inevitably long drawn out case, whatever the result, could seriously damage Liberal prospects in the country.
There is much admiration for Mr Thorpe╒s fortitude, but there is also the realisation that the charges present appalling difficulties for the party Mr Thorpe once led.
Senior Liberals were hoping last night that Mr Thorpe would soon make a clear announcement of what he intends to do. Mr Alan Beith, the Liberal Whip, was hoping last night to get in touch with Mr Thorpe to persuade him to say exactly, and soon, what he intended to do.
But last night, in a statement, Mrs Lillian Prowse, Mr Thorpe╒s party agent in North Devon, said Mr Thorpe would fulfil his weekend engagements in the constituency. This increased speculation that the naturally combative former Liberal leader was determined to fight for his political career.
Before his court appearance yesterday Mr Thorpe telephoned Mr Beith and Mr Steel and told them that he expected to be charged and that he would issue a statement after his court appearance. Senior Liberals were refusing last night to say anything in public about the case until Mr Thorpe had spoken.
Party officials are dismayed by the quirk of timing which will mean that the second court hearing in Minehead will take place on September 12 ╤ the second day of the Liberals╒ annual conference in Southport. The conference, probably the last before a general election, will be a particularly important one for the party.
At yesterday╒s hearing Mr Thorpe, his friend and best man at his wedding, Mr David Holmes, Mr Deakin, a night club owner, and Mr Le Mesurier, a former managing director of a carpet discount centre, were granted bail of ú5,000 each. They were asked to hand their passports to police on the understanding that these would be released to them at the discretion of the police if necessary. Lord Avebury, the former Liberal MP Eric Lubbock, who was in court, put up the ú5,000 surety for Mr Thorpe. During the hearing the men spoke only to answer the clerk of the court, Mr Harold Winder, when he put their names to them. Reporting restrictions were not lifted.
The four men arrived within minutes of each other at Minehead police station to be charged at noon yesterday. The Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, Mr Kenneth Steele, was present at the station. Detectives from his force have been investigating the case since last year.
At two o╒clock the four went into the adjoining courthouse for the hearing. Outside, police kept back photographers and over 100 members of the public from the courthouse doors.
Mr Thorpe, who is a Privy Councillor, has been an MP since 1959 when he won North Devon for the Liberals. He became leader of the party in 1967 and stood down from the leadership two years ago because, he said, he could no longer carry on in the face of a campaign of denigration in the press and among some Liberals, after the allegation of a homosexual relationship made by Norman Scott.
Mr Thorpe╒s parliamentary colleagues are known to be extremely anxious about the effects of yesterday╒s charges on Liberal support in the West Country, which Mr Thorpe has made one of his strongest bases of support. The area, with three Liberal MPs, including Mr Thorpe, forms the most solid Liberal region in the country.
Mr Thorpe arrived in Minehead yesterday from his North Devon home at Cobberton. Mr Holmes arrived from London in his Rover saloon with his solicitor, Mr Anthony Leifer, of D. J. Freeman and Co. Mr Le Mesurier, now part-owner of the Pyle Carpet Discount Centre in South Wales, was accompanied to the court by his solicitor, Mr Geoffrey Thomas. Mr Deakin left his home in Port Talbot in the boot of his solicitor╒s car just after 9 a.m.
Those standing surety, in addition to Lord Avebury, were Mrs Shirley Komrower, of Oakley Park, Abingdon, Oxon, for Mr Holmes; Mr Clive Harvey, of the Old Vicarage, Port Talbot, for Mr Le Mesurier; and Mr Peter Richards, of Moorland Park, Port Talbot, for Mr Deakin.
Mr Thorpe╒s status as a Privy Councillor and MP is not affected by the charges he now faces. Those positions would only be affected if he were found guilty at a subsequent trial.
Mr Norman Scott╒s claim to have had a homosexual relationship with Mr Thorpe was first investigated by leading Liberals in the early 1970s. It reached a wider audience in February, 1976, when Mr Scott made his allegations at a magistrates╒ court hearing the case against Mr Andrew ╥Gino╙ Newton, a former airline pilot who shot Mr Scott╒s dog on Bodmin Moor. Mr Thorpe has consistently denied the claims.
The more sensational claim that there had been a conspiracy to kill Mr Scott was made by Mr Newton when he was released from gaol early last year. The DPP ordered a new police investigation last October.
The electoral history of North Devon reflects more the enormous local popularity of Mr Thorpe rather than any intrinsic strength of local Liberalism. In 1964 he had a majority of 5,136 over the Tory candidate. In 1966 his majority was cut to 1,166. In 1970, in spite of the prestige of being leader, Mr Thorpe narrowly survived as North Devon╒s MP with a majority of 369 votes. But in February 1974, on the crest of the Liberal revival, the majority leapt to 11,072.
At the last election it dropped again but was still 6,721. One of the factors in cutting back the Liberal majority was the presence of a strong Conservative candidate, Mr Tony Speller, a local businessman and former councillor. He will be fighting the seat for the Conservatives at the next election.
The former Liberal MP for Bodmin, Mr Peter Bessell, said in New York yesterday that he expects to be a prosecution witness against Mr Thorpe.
