page_title: Profumo affair
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Profumo affair / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: The main 1894 building of Toynbee Hall, Commercial Street, London E1. The frontage bears a Greater London Council blue plaque commemorating Jimmy Mallon (1874-1961)
context_page_description: The Profumo affair was a British political scandal that originated with a brief sexual relationship in 1961, between John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, and Christine Keeler, a 19-year-old would-be model. In March 1963, Profumo denied any impropriety in a personal statement to the House of Commons, but was forced to admit the truth a few weeks later. He resigned from the government and from Parliament. The repercussions of the affair severely damaged Macmillan's self-confidence, and he resigned as Prime Minister on health grounds in October 1963. The reputation of the Conservative Party was damaged by the scandal, which may have contributed to its defeat by the Labour Party in the 1964 general election.
  When the Profumo–Keeler affair was first revealed, public interest was heightened by reports that Keeler may have been simultaneously involved with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché, thereby creating a possible security risk. Keeler knew both Profumo and Ivanov through her friendship with Stephen Ward, an osteopath and socialite who had taken her under his wing.
context_section_description: Lord Denning's report was awaited with great anticipation by the public. Published on 26 September 1963, it concluded that there had been no security leaks in the Profumo affair and that the security services and government ministers had acted appropriately. Profumo had been guilty of an "indiscretion", but no one could doubt his loyalty. Denning also found no evidence to link members of the government with associated scandals such as the "man in the mask". He laid most of the blame for the affair on Ward, an "utterly immoral" man whose diplomatic activities were "misconceived and misdirected". Although The Spectator considered that the report marked the end of the affair, many commentators were disappointed with its content. Young found many questions unanswered and some of the reasoning defective, while Davenport-Hines, writing long after the event, condemns the report as disgraceful, slipshod and prurient.
  After the Denning Report, in defiance of general expectations that he would resign shortly, Macmillan announced his intention to stay on. On the eve of the Conservative Party's annual conference in October 1963 he fell ill; his condition was less serious than he imagined, and his life was not in danger  but, convinced he had cancer, he resigned abruptly.  His successor as prime minister was Lord Home, who renounced his peerage and served as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. In the October 1964 general election the Conservative Party was narrowly defeated, and Wilson became prime minister. A later commentator opined that the Profumo affair had destroyed the old, aristocratic Conservative party: "It wouldn't be too much to say that the Profumo scandal was the necessary prelude to the new Toryism, based on meritocracy, which would eventually emerge under Margaret Thatcher". The Economist suggested that the Profumo affair had effected a fundamental and permanent change in relations between politicians and press. Davenport-Hines posits a longer-term consequence of the affair—the gradual ending of traditional notions of deference: "Authority, however disinterested, well-qualified and experienced, was [after June 1963] increasingly greeted with suspicion rather than trust".
  After expressing his "deep remorse" to the prime minister, to his constituents and to the Conservative Party, Profumo disappeared from public view. In April 1964 he began working as a volunteer at the Toynbee Hall settlement, a charitable organisation based in Spitalfields which supports the most deprived residents in the East End of London. Profumo continued his association with the  settlement for the remainder of his life, at first in a menial capacity, then as administrator, fund-raiser, council member, chairman and finally president. His charitable work was recognised when he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1975. He was later described by Margaret Thatcher as a national hero, and was a guest at her 80th birthday celebrations in 2005. His marriage to Valerie Hobson lasted until her death on 13 November 1998, aged 81; Profumo died, aged 91, on 9 March 2006.
  In December 1963 Keeler pleaded guilty to committing perjury at Gordon's June trial, and she was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, of which she served four and a half months in prison. After two brief marriages in 1965–66 to James Levermore and in 1971–72 to Anthony Platt that produced a child each, the eldest of whom was largely raised by Christine's mother Julie, Christine largely lived alone from the mid-1990s until she died in December 2017. Most of the considerable amount of money that she made from newspaper stories was dissipated by legal fees; during the 1970s, she said, "I was not living, I was surviving". She published several inconsistent accounts of her life, in which Ward has been variously represented as a "gentleman", her truest love, a Soviet spy, and a traitor ranking alongside Philby, Burgess and Maclean. She also claimed that Profumo impregnated her and that she subsequently underwent a painful abortion. Her portrait, by Ward, was acquired by the
caption: Toynbee Hall
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