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Is 'sleazebuster' MP who romped with two teen girls the victim of a 'smear campaign'?
Last updated at 00:37am on 11.04.07
Young musicians: Judie Morrison, left, and Catriona Watt
Angus MacNeil is the victim of a smear campagn, claims SNP party leader Alex Salmond
The MP who triggered the police investigation into cash-for-peerages is the suspected victim of a sinister smear campaign, it has been claimed.
Scottish Nationalist MP Angus Macneil was forced to apologise to his wife and family after admitting to a 'drunken romp' with two teenage girls.
But in a dramatic twist, SNP party leader Alex Salmond suggested the MP had been spied on by MI5 as a result of the honours inquiry.
Mr Salmond said Mr Macneil had made the 'most extraordinary powerful enemies' after the inquiry probed the highest levels of Downing Street.
His complaint to the Metropolitan Police has triggered a 13-month probe which has seen Tony Blair interviewed twice by detectives and fundraiser Lord Levy and top No10 aide Ruth Turner arrested.
Two police forces confirmed they had investigated complaints of 'intense intrusion' against Mr Macneil but said no crimes had been detected.
The Metropolitan Police revealed it had investigated an allegation of a break-in to Mr Macneil's Commons office after claims it had been 'swept' in a covert spying operation, but found no evidence.
Yet the alleged incidents bear striking similiarities to the treatment of former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who claimed he was the victim of dirty tricks by MI6 after speaking out against US foreign policy in the former Soviet state.
After he accused Britain of being complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects by American forces, stories emerged of Mr Murray's affair with a 22-year-old dancer, which the diplomat admitted, and accusations that he offered visas in return for sex, which he denied.
A Sunday newspaper revealed that Mr Macneil 'kissed and fondled' two teenage girls in a hotel room in July 2005.
Mr MacNeil, 36, said he bitterly regretted the incident but was angry it had diverted attention from the 'substantial political issues' he had been pursuing.
The SNP said police had been alerted to allegations Mr MacNeil was subject to a 'suspicious following operation' during the weekend of an SNP conference in Glasgow, of suspicious telephone calls to his home on Barra in the Western Isles and a suspected break-in at his Commons office.
At a public meeting in Stornaway, Lewis, on Monday, Mr Salmond said there had been a 'question of sweeping' Mr Macneil's Westminster office.
Mr Salmond added: "Angus MacNeil is somebody, because of leading the cash-for-honours inquiry, who has made the most extraordinary powerful enemies and I have never seen a member of parliament subjected to this sort of intense intrusion.
"I have to say, given what's been said by the families about the inaccuracies and exaggerations in the story that was printed, I think people around Scotland will be saying after all this investigation was that all they could dig up about him?"
Strathclyde and the Metropolitan Police said they had carried out probes but no crimes were detected, while Northern Constabulary denied they had received a complaint about suspicious calls to his home.
Father of three Mr Macneil admitted he was 'wrong and stupid' to have cheated on his pregnant wife with Judie Morrison, then 17, and Catriona Watt, then 18.
According to an account in a Sunday newspaper, they kissed and fondled on his bed but did not have sex.
The girls' families have claimed the story was exaggerated and inaccurate.
A Met Police spokesman said: "Officers attended but there was no sign of forced entry and nothing was taken. No offences were disclosed."
Reader views (6)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
It's plain from the original story that the girls didn't sell the story. Whoever gave this story to the press didn't care about their well-being and has set them up too.
Three drunken people get over-affectionate. They don't even have sex. It's not much of a story (older teenagers get drunk after exams, political has too much to drink, fondling ensues) and it seems to have taken a lot of digging to find this much against the MP.
Human beings are complex and imperfect. They make mistakes. I hope the families and individuals involved in this very minor incident manage to recover from the salacious interest of the press, the government and - if they're involved - MI5.
And I hope that Angus MacNeil continues to serve his constituency as a conscientious MP and to address what may be a real scandal: the alleged sale of peerages (seats and votes in parliament!) for sponsorship of a widely-mistrusted and discredited party.
- Kathleen Bell, Nottingham England
It is appalling that prudes who are listen to tittle-tattle pseudo-moral strictures allow a disgraceful and dishonest Government and their disgraceful and dishonest Secret Service to make a serious attempt to change the public debate about the Governments slease and corruption.
The latter is of serious public interest and the former is of no concern other than to brave Angus McNeil and his family.
His family weren't hurt by him.
They were hurt by a morally disgusting and vengeful Prime Minister.
What good has it done them to learn of this?
What good has it done Paul Jardine of Bromley, Kent and HIS like?
- Gerard Mulholland, Paris, France
He made a drunken mistake and the pro-Labour media - and the establishment which now hates him for bringing about the Cash for Honours probe - are out to get him.
Of course it is a blatant smear campaign, the Labour mouthpieces of the Glasgow Sunday Mail and The Herald newspapers have dished the dirt on him a few weeks before the Scottish elections.
The fact is he has done the UK a great service by bringing about a police investigation which could yet lead to prosecutions in very high places. He has also exposed corruption and sleaze within this vile Labour government. Hats off to him for that!
It is a blatant and sinister smear campaign, nothing less.
- John, London
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