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Dame Shirley Porter |
There is nobody like Dame Shirley Porter
One of the chief accusers in the homes-for-votes scandal reveals how events unfolded, writes Illtyd Harrington
The Westminster Whistleblowers
by Paul Dimoldenberg.
Published by Methuen. £12.99
AS a child, the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz scared me. Later, when I took the smaller children in my family to see 101 Dalmatians, I hid behind them as Cruella Deville came on to steal the pups.
Dame Shirley Porter has the same affect on me. Is she for real? Brass-necked. Ruthless. Poisonous with other people’s reputations. Economical with the truth. A stand-in for Lady Macbeth.
This 17-year-old saga of the consequences of her actions is told by Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour Group on Westminster City Council, who was one of her chief accusers in a series of events which rocked the Tory stronghold of Westminster.
The supporting cast and script has more double dealing than a Jacobean 17th-century play. There stood the district auditor and independent unlikely crusading accountant vilified and assailed. Two Tory councillors sickened by Porter’s endless manipulations denounced her on a sensational edition of BBC’s Panorama.
Enter Roger Rosewell, a former revolutionary Trotskyite, who became a close adviser to her Ladyship. Startlingly enough at one stage, as late as June 1998, she employed the services of Lord Neil who was the chairman of the committee of standards in public life.
After four days it dawned on him, or was revealed in a heavenly vision, that there could be a conflict of interest. That is the most gentle explanation. Hastily he quit before he was shoved.
Then there was the miserable business of doctor Michael Dutt, a former vice chairman of housing in Westminster and close Porter ally. On the January 26 1992 he committed suicide by shooting himself.
So what is the scandal all about? “Just that she gave away three cemeteries, three lodge houses, one flat, one crematorium and 12 acres of prime development, for £1.” That was according to Dale Campbell-Saviours in the House of Commons, May, 1998. Casually the three cemeteries were sold on January 29, 1987. Within 24 hours, a firm of estate agents sold one of the cemetery gatehouses for £175,000 – a handsome return on an expenditure of 15p.
In 1992 Westminster City Council bought the cemeteries back for £4 million. Never did 15 pence grow so fast.
Prior to her departure for exile in March 1994 her devoted son John helped his anguished and misunderstood mum to rearrange depleted resources.
In January 1992 she solemnly took an oath of having financial assets of £300,000.
Lucky girl, she must have won the lottery, or come across a generous friend. In 2004 she made the notorious deal, paying £12.5 million out of the £42m surcharge she owed.
Inexplicably, perhaps ironically, John Major in the 1991 New Year’s honours made her a Dame of British Empire, would you believe, for services to local government.
Presumably for standing back and housing the homeless in asbestos-filled blocks in Paddington or transporting them to outer London.
Or for instigating the most outrageous act of political gerrymandering since the rotten boroughs of 300 years ago.
All the stranger to understand that a month earlier the House of Lords unanimously slapped her down, ending years of legal wrangling and manoeuvring and told her to shut up and cough up.
Now it is necessary to draw a deep breath of disbelief. For after the April 2004 deal of £12.5 million it was Paul Dimoldenberg – the chief accuser – who was solemnly charged with breaking council confidentiality and bringing Westminster council into disrepute.
He argued that he was acting in the public interest.
He was brought before the absurd Standards Board. Two years later he was exonerated but mildly rebuked.
Simon Milton, another prodigy of the monstrous Porter, and leader of Westminster City Council, got a knighthood for “services to local government,” would you believe it.
An important footnote is the acknowledgement of the vigilance of the staff of the Camden New Journal’s sister paper the West End Extra in this sordid tale as a leading local paper which monitored and pursued the perpetrators which burdened Westminster ratepayers with Porter’s misdeed. Her Ladyship-Dame, she’s both, has found a humble abode and place of refuge in the heart of Mayfair.
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