A senior gay Conservative claimed yesterday that Sir Edward Heath propositioned men for sex in the 1950s.

Brian Coleman, chairman of the London Assembly, claimed that the former Prime Minister curbed his behaviour after he was warned that it would harm his career.

Asked to substantiate his claims, Mr Coleman told The Times: “I have this on very good authority. There were many stories about Ted Heath. I did not know him well myself, but have been told this by people who did.

“It was certainly not a secret that he was an old queen. I have been told that he was warned about his behaviour and then stopped.”

In a column for the online edition of the New Statesman, Mr Coleman wrote that Sir Edward was one of a number of gay men who have thrived in government.

He wrote: “The late Ted Heath managed to obtain the highest Office of State after he was supposedly advised to cease his cottaging activities in the 1950s when he became a Privy Counsellor,” he wrote.

The claim prompted an outcry from Sir Edward’s friends.

Sir Edward, Prime Minister between 1970 and 1974, never commented on his sexuality.

One senior Tory and friend of his described the claim as “extraordinary”. Robert Key, MP for Salisbury and Sir Edward’s Parliamentary private secretary between 1984 and 1986, said that far from being gay he had close relationships with unnamed women.

“I was aware that he had very close friendships and relationships with a number of women,” he said. “I never thought that he had a predalic-tion for men. To say that someone who was that politically astute would risk it all is quite an extraordinary claim.”

Lord Carrington, who served as Sir Edward’s Defence Secretary, said simply: “What a load of nonsense.”

Lord Rees-Mogg, a former editor of The Timeswho regarded Sir Edward as a friendly political acquaintance, said he believed that Sir Edward was celibate. “I knew Ted in the Fifties and I ran into him all of the time. He always left on me the impression that he had no active sexual life at all,” he said.

“He had no coterie of young men. I knew several Conservative homosexuals at the time and they gossiped about anyone who was gay or might be gay. They never said that Ted was gay but did say that he was not interested at all.”

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