Lord Lambton, the Defence Minister who resigned after he was photographed through a keyhole smoking cannabis in bed with two prostitutes, has died at his Italian home aged 84.

His sex and drugs exposé in 1973 sent shock waves through Edward Heath’s Government, which feared a repeat of the Profumo scandal of the 1960s. Lord Jellicoe, then Leader of the House, resigned from his post three days later after he admitted that he had also been using call girls.

Lord Lambton, who succeeded to the earldom of Durham in 1970 and who had served as MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed since 1951, was brought down after pictures of him in bed with the women were passed to the News of the World.

He was investigated by the security services and denied access to secret material because of fears that he could be blackmailed.

In a memorable interview with Robin Day after his exposure he was asked why he used call girls and replied: “I think that people sometimes like variety. I think it’s as simple as that and I think that impulse is probably understood by almost everybody. Don’t you?” In an interview with MI5 officers he blamed his downfall on having thrown himself into a “frenzied” round of vigorous “gardening and debauchery” to get over having lost a three-year battle over the use of his father’s title.

The source of his downfall was a police drive against drug and vice rings in the West End of London. Officers had begun to take a special interest in an official Daimler parked regularly near the Maida Vale flat of Norma Levy, 26, a prostitute. When interviewed, Mrs Levy denounced her husband, Colin, as a drug trafficker. He was allegedly about to fly in from Morocco with a haul of cocaine, along with copies of letters and cheques signed “Lambton”. She named the minister as one of her “sugar daddies”.

As Mr Levy peddled compromising pictures around Fleet Street, the scandal erupted and ministers agonised.

A search of Lord Lambton’s flat turned up a hidden cache of drugs. He then went to Francis Pym, the Chief Whip, confirmed that he was the man in the picture and offered his resignation. He moved to Italy where he bought a 400-year-old Tuscan estate and lived with his wife, Belinda Blew Jones, who died three years ago, and their five children.

Until his downfall Lord Lambton was best known for his efforts firstly to lose — and then to retain — a title.

When his father died in 1970, he chose to disclaim the earldom of Durham, to which he was the heir, so that he could stay in the Commons. But he also wanted to keep the courtesy title of Viscount Lambton. In April of that year Dr Horace King, then Speaker, ruled that he could not use it in the Commons. After the general election he renewed and won a similar appeal to the new Speaker, Selwyn Lloyd.

Born in 1922, he was a cousin of Lord Home, who as prime minister was Sir Alec Douglas-Home. In Parliament, Lord Lambton served two years as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary, Selwyn Lloyd. In 1957 he resigned from that post, over Suez, and in 1970 he became a junior Defence Minister.

Five years after he left the Commons in 1973 he published a novel in which various real political figures were recognisable in some of the characters.

News of his death on Saturday was announced in his local paper La Nazione yesterday. Neighbours said that the body was due to be moved to Siena in preparation for a private family service.

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