'The Max Factor', Total Politics

Thursday, June 18, 2009

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He has helped expose almost every political scandal over the past 20 years. So what did Max Clifford make of the expenses crisis? By James Silver.

Pick a tabloid scandal involving a politician or a celebrity at random from the past 20 years, and there's a pretty good chance Max Clifford's fingerprints are all over it.

The publicist may not have been the front-man - though he often is - but he was almost certainly in the background; making calls, pitching to editors, flitting through the shadows, amid a whiff of sulphur.

From Freddie Starr supposedly snacking on a hamster and David 'Toe Job to No Job' Mellor, to the global interest in Jade Goody's final days and David Beckham's alleged offside antics, the silver-haired PR man has had a hand in bringing all manner of gossip to the nation's breakfast tables.

Few are better versed in the dark arts of the tabloid feeding-frenzy. So what, then, does this authority on dirt-dishing make of that Mother Of All Political Scandals - the MPs' expenses brouhaha? As we meet, the papers are still full of fiddling and flipping, dredged moats and duck-pond ornaments, toilet seats and tree-surgery.

Politicians' names are mud and a thick pall of despondency hangs over the Palace of Westminster, as the airwaves splutter with righteous indignation from voters. "Politics has never been in such a bad place in terms of public perception," says Clifford, in his first interview on the subject.

"I cannot remember a time when there was such disgust at politicians. They're all tainted. And the problem is this: if you look at the last year, bankers have been destroyed, they have no credibility, you can't trust them. Social-workers have been destroyed, in the wake of Baby Peter. Now you've got all this with politicians. So from a PR point of view, the public is asking who the hell can you trust?"

In fact, only one ancient, creaking institution has emerged from the expenses firestorm with its reputation enhanced, the PR man points out, and he certainly isn't referring to the House of Lords.

"This whole affair has been the best thing that's ever happened to The Daily Telegraph. Suddenly, everyone's talking about it again. To the masses, the Telegraph was this old newspaper locked away in a room somewhere, gathering cobwebs. So if they did pay £300,000 or however much for the expenses story; it's been an incredibly good investment for them, because suddenly they're everywhere, dominating the media."

Was Clifford himself involved - even tangentially - in brokering the sale of the scoop to the Telegraph, I ask? He shakes his head, though not vigorously. "No, definitely not. And if I was involved I wouldn't tell you."

He adds, smirking: "As you know, I would hate to do anything to embarrass politicians."

But embarrassed, as a breed, UK politicians certainly are right now. Indeed, so tarnished is the House of Commons 'brand', I wonder how Clifford would set about restoring its image? "In order to regain the public's trust, they need to bring in people from outside politics to clean this up," he replies.

"For the sake of argument, someone like Sir Alan Sugar - who's seen as successful and straight, who's made it and run major businesses. He could be part of a body which oversees any new system [for deciding MPs' salaries and expenses]. The public would trust someone like him, as he has nothing to gain."

However, he doesn't think celebrity candidates running for office is the answer either, and certainly won't be encouraging any of his clients - which include Simon Cowell - to do so. "I think the public see celebrities as too lightweight, we're not like the Americans," he says. "Anyway not many celebrities with real talent and ability would want to go into politics with all the aggravation that comes with it. Why would they want to earn £150,000 a year if they get to the top in politics, when they can earn millions doing something else?"

Clifford, of course, has watched political scandals unfold before. During the slow-motion demise of the last Conservative government, he had a ringside seat, as he exposed a flood of lurid tabloid kiss and tell stories involving prominent Tories including David Mellor and Jeffrey Archer.

With a daughter who has rheumatoid arthritis and has spent much of her life in hospital, the PR man was motivated by what he saw as the "destruction" of the NHS under successive Tory governments. As payback, he made it his business to damage Major with a drip-feed of toxic publicity. "I'd like to think I got the word sleaze attached to the Conservatives," he now says, seriously.

How does he think the expenses scandal compares with the slew of miniature scandals which engulfed Major's final months? "Oh this is far, far more damaging and demoralising," Clifford replies, pointing to framed front pages featuring David Mellor and Jeffrey Archer, which hang on his office walls like a huntsman's trophies. "That was just a few randy sods and hypocrites. The public were tired of the Tories by then anyway."

His chair squeaks as he leans forward, suddenly sounding cross. "You've got to understand, this was very close to my heart at the time. I was almost living in NHS hospitals then, for 10 years, when my daughter was having all these major operations. So I saw first-hand the parlous state of the NHS, I was sitting there talking to the nurses and doctors. This wasn't about the Tories, my reaction would have been the same if it had been Labour, the Liberals or the communists in charge of the country. The NHS, one of our proudest achievements, was being destroyed. I didn't care who was in Downing Street."

Is he proud of the role he played in the Tory loss in the 1997 general election? "I'm happy that I got the [Tory sleaze] message out there, yes," snaps Clifford, adding: "I didn't go out there asking people to phone me with stories [about Tory politicians]. It just worked out that way. The stories came to me."

Does he care that a large number of Conservatives still revile him?

"Wonderful!" he sneers. "Look, it's not a question of not caring what people think of me. I stood up to be counted. When I exposed any of these guys and I was invited on TV with them face-to-face I always said 'Yes, I'll be there'. But they never turned up. With Archer, I went in the witness box at the Old Bailey. I'm not being clever or cocksure, it's just that I stood up for what I believed in." But, later, he concedes that - altruism aside - he did benefit financially from such stories too. "Of course I profited from them, yes."

When the Tories lost, the flow of sex scandal stories appeared to abate almost overnight. Former Labour Cabinet minister Ron Davies' much-mocked moment of madness on Clapham Common was one of the few of the genre to appear in the tabloids during Tony Blair's premiership. Needless to say, Clifford was once again behind the story, just as he was later, in 2006, with the revelations that then-deputy PM John Prescott had had an affair with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple.

According to Clifford, the tailing off of sex scandals involving politicians had nothing to do with changing public tastes or MPs suddenly keeping their trouser belts buckled. Rather, it was simply down to the fact that Labour under Blair had grown wary.

"Politicians were clever by then," he explains. "They were more aware of the risks. It wasn't that there was less going on, it was just that Labour were much better at covering it all up. When Labour got in, Blair, who's a clever operator, warned his MPs: 'This is what's going on now...It's open season out there. The Tory press is going be desperate to get you'."

But there's another factor at play, too, argues the PR man - namely, a creeping privacy law, established through judicial interpretation of the Human Rights Act. With tabloids taking fewer risks with stories they don't have cold, or backing down when faced with injunctions, this, says Clifford, means politicians and celebrities are more protected than ever before.

"There are an awful lot of stories which haven't come out, some of them about politicians' sex lives, some of them about stars, footballers, football-managers, which are 100 per cent true, but don't get published because of [the courts]," he claims.

Does he still hear snippets of gossip about the sexual peccadilloes of politicians? "Of course I do," he sniffs. When asked to describe a recent example, he willingly does so, without naming names. "There are two big name politicians - Tory and Labour - who regularly go to be dominated and punished by a dominatrix. Both the dominatrix involved have come to me in the last year and told me details, but I'm not doing anything about it, because I'm just not interested."

I ask him to clarify his last comment, which only serves to make him irritable. "Look, please try to understand this," he bridles. "There were plenty of stories about politicians that came to me over the years that I stopped from being published, because the stories involved MPs who weren't lecturing us about family values, they weren't pretending to be someone they weren't.

"As someone that has always had affairs," he announces, as casually as if naming his favourite breakfast cereal, "having an affair isn't the end of the world. It's not something that I'm proud of, it's just a simple fact. So how could I condemn other people [for having affairs]?"

Will he continue placing stories about the misadventures of politicians? "If someone came to me with a story that a politician was interfering with a little boy then, fine, I'd get involved," he says. "But if it's just soand- so is shagging someone on the side...then so what? 90 per cent of Max Clifford Associates is business PR and media work. The other 10 per cent are the stories you know about. And I only do them because they help to keep [me] centre-stage."

Then he makes an unlikely claim: "I'm not interested in those sorts of stories at all - I don't even read them when they appear," he says. "I've always preferred to have a great sex life, than read about what other people get up to."

Max Clifford: Quick Fire

Which tabloid headline are you most pleased with?
'Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster' - it made people laugh and has done for years. I also like 'From Toe Job to No Job', because [David] Mellor was so arrogant.

Which politician(s) do you Who do you most admire?
Tony Blair, Bill Clinton. Both clever men.

Your favourite meal?
Probably a seafood salad.

Have you sacked anyone in your life?
Yes. Very, very occasionally, and in a very gentle way. 'It's just not working out,' you know, 'I'll help you in any way I can...'

Any regrets about advice you've given a client?
That's like asking 'Are you always right?' Of course I'm not. Have I been involved in things that a year later, I've thought 'Oh Christ, why did I get involved with that'? Yes. Mandy Allwood [who miscarried octuplets in 1996 and sold her story] was a good example.

How will you vote next time?
I'm instinctively socialist. But the way I see Labour at the moment, I'd struggle to vote for them.

Who do you think has been the best national newspaper editor during your career?
[Daily Mail editor-in-chief] Paul Dacre.

Do you think people like you?
Most of the people who know me tend to like me. Generally speaking, I'm very happy with the public perception of me. Everywhere I go people want to come and talk to me. 90 per cent of them are very friendly, in spite of the fact I drive a brand new Bentley and live in a beautiful big house.

A lot of people are writing obituaries of newspapers at the moment. Do you think printed tabloids will exist in 10 years time?
I hope so. Because I think they serve a national purpose. It's a gradual decline, but we are still very much a newspaper nation.

Can you give me an example of someone who recently came to you with a story to sell who you sent packing?
A dominatrix came to me a few weeks ago and was trying to sell a story - which was probably true - and I said 'Not for me, thanks'.

How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who got an awful lot out and put an awful lot back. You don't know about the charity work I've done, and have done for 40 years. But I do, and so do lots of others.

(Total Politics magazine, 18th June 2009)

Posted by James Silver - On Thursday, June 18, 2009

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