Sir Peter Hugh Morrison (2 June 1944 – 13 July 1995) was a British Conservative politician, MP for Chester from 1974 to 1992, and Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Background and education

Morrison born in Fonthill Bishop, Wiltshire, the third son of John Morrison, 1st Baron Margadale, by the Honourable Margaret Smith, the daughter of Frederick Smith, 2nd Viscount Hambleden, and Lady Esther Gore.{{cite news|last = Cosgrave|first = Peter|date = 15 July 1995 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-peter-morrison-1591525.html |title=Obituary: Sir Peter Morrison |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=8 October 2016}} James Morrison, 2nd Baron Margadale, and Sir Charles Morrison, Conservative MP for Devizes from 1964 to 1992, were his elder brothers. He was educated at Eton and Keble College, Oxford, where he read Law.

Political career

Morrison was first elected to the House of Commons in the general election of February 1974 for Chester. He was one of the first backbench MPs to urge Margaret Thatcher to stand for the Party leadership in 1975. In 1986 he became Deputy Conservative Party chairman under Norman Tebbit having been previously a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister of State in the Department of Employment. In 1987, he was Minister of State for Energy,{{Cite web|url=http://www.berr.gov.uk/aboutus/corporate/history/ministers/dept-of-energy/page17164.html|title=Department of Energy (1974–1992), Ministers as at 26 June 1987|access-date=6 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091204155913/http://www.berr.gov.uk/aboutus/corporate/history/ministers/dept-of-energy/page17164.html|archive-date=4 December 2009|url-status=dead}} with responsibility for oil.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19890426&id=hzNAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RFkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4054,3034899 Glasgow Herald], 26 April 1989.

It was while he was based in Chester that he became good friends with former leader of the Welsh Conservatives Nick Bourne.{{Cite web|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/bourne-denies-aspirationsfor-election-parliament-2465314|title=Bourne denies aspirationsfor election to Parliament|date=15 October 2003|website=walesonline}}

During this period it was alleged that Morrison joined the small group of MPs, who included Michael Grylls and Neil Hamilton, who took money from Ian Greer on behalf of third-party clients.Stephen Castle, [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/rise-and-fall-of-the-greed-generations-lobbyist-1356986.html "Rise and fall of the greed generation's lobbyist"], independent.co.uk, 6 October 1996. During the Cash for Questions Inquiry, Ian Greer Associates admitted Morrison received payments after ceasing to be an MP. The Parliamentary Report in Hansard quotes Ian Greer as stating he made "Two commission payments, perhaps three, for client referrals" to Morrison between 1993 and 1994.[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmstnprv/030ii/sp01111.htm House of Commons Select Committee on Standards and Privileges First Report 1996], publications.parliament.uk; accessed 7 September 2016.

In 1990, Morrison became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher; he was the leader of her campaign team in the Conservative leadership election in the same year. He was relaxed about Thatcher's prospects and predicted an easy win for her. Alan Clark went to visit him one afternoon during the campaign and found him asleep in his office. Morrison claimed that he had assurances from enough MPs that they were Thatcher supporters to be certain she would win.Alan Clark, Diaries, p354 (entry for 19th Nov 1990), Phoenix Press 1993

After the first ballot of Conservative MPs had shown that Thatcher did not have enough votes to win outright, Morrison suggested to her that she should consult the Cabinet one-by-one to gauge support. He said to her: "Prime Minister, if you haven't won then there are a lot of Tory MPs who are lying".{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1424285.stm |title=The ghastly process has begun |access-date=17 February 2009 |work=BBC News|date=9 July 2001}} He stood down at the 1992 general election, being succeeded as MP for Chester by Gyles Brandreth.

Morrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in February 1991.[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/52543/page/8208/data.pdf The London Gazette], 28 May 1991, p. 8208 He died of a heart attack early in the morning of 13 July 1995, aged 51.

Homosexuality

According to the journalist Simon Heffer, Morrison was gay and went cruising (looking for men for sex) in Sussex Gardens, near Paddington station in central London.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3579995/Homophobia-has-never-been-the-Tories%27-problem.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302182544/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3579995/Homophobia-has-never-been-the-Tories%27-problem.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 March 2009 |title=Homophobia has never been the Tories' problem |access-date=17 February 2009 |author=Simon Heffer |author-link=Simon Heffer |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=4 August 2002}} Fellow Conservative MP Michael Brown, another associate of Greer and himself gay, described Morrison as gay in a column published by The Independent in 2002.{{cite news |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/shock-news-there-are-gay-mps-in-the-tory-party-649882.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091206050117/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/shock-news-there-are-gay-mps-in-the-tory-party-649882.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 December 2009 |title=Shock news: there are gay MPs in the Tory party |date=30 July 2002}}

Allegations of child abuse

{{blockquote|There were no very precise allegations, but suggestions that Morrison might have attended gay parties and engaged in casual pick-ups ... Morrison was asked by whips about the accusations and always categorically denied them ... [Norman] Tebbit recalled, 'I began to hear allegations, coming from his constituency [Chester], when he was with me at CCO, that he was excessively interested in schoolboys. I faced him. He swore absolutely that there was no truth in it. I wasn't absolutely convinced.' Tebbit did not discuss the rumours with Mrs Thatcher, however, and she never raised them. The only effect of such stories was that an informal ceiling was put on Morrison's career. He was known to want to be chairman of the party after the 1987 election, but it was understood that this would be too risky. Robin Butler recalled that, in his time as Mrs Thatcher's private secretary, which ended in 1985, no accusations came up about Morrison. When Butler became Cabinet secretary in 1987, however, allegations did surface. They were about homosexuality, and therefore the possibility of being compromised by Soviet agents, rather than about child abuse.{{cite book

|last=Moore |first=Charles

|year=2015

|title=Margaret Thatcher: Everything She Wants

|volume=2

|url={{Google books|LU_ZCQAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}}

|publisher=Penguin Books

|isbn=978-0-241-20126-8

|page=468}}

|source=Margaret Thatcher's biographer Charles Moore on the allegations}}

In October 2012, Rod Richards, a former MP and ex-leader of the Welsh Conservatives, implicated Morrison in the North Wales child abuse scandal.Patrick Sawer and Jason Lewis [https://web.archive.org/web/20121103233053/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9653254/Senior-Tories-accused-over-child-abuse.html "Senior Tories accused over child abuse"], The Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2012.

Between 1974 and 1990, up to 650 children from forty children's homes (such as Bryn Estyn in Wrexham) were sexually, physically and emotionally abused. Richards said that Morrison and another high-profile Conservative politician were named in documents as regular and unexplained visitors to the care homes.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Investigative journalist Nick Davies reported in The Guardian that Morrison received a caution for cottaging with underage boys in public lavatories.{{cite news |url=http://www.nickdavies.net/1998/04/01/the-sheer-scale-of-child-sexual-abuse-in-britain/ |title=The sheer scale of child sexual abuse in Britain |publisher=Reprinted from The Guardian (April 1998) on www.nickdavies.net |access-date=27 October 2012}}

Former Conservative minister Edwina Currie stated that Morrison regularly had sex with 16-year-old boys at a time when the legal age of consent for same-sex relations was 21.{{cite news|first=Nicholas|last=Hellen|url=http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Politics/article1153409.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714201521/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Politics/article1153409.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 July 2014|title= Thatcher aide 'had sex with underage boys'|work=Sunday Times|location=London, UK|date=21 October 2012}} In 2002, Currie wrote in her autobiography that "he's what they call 'a noted pederast', with a liking for young boys; he admitted as much ... when he became deputy chairman of the party but added, 'However, I'm very discreet' — and he must be!"

Gyles Brandreth, Morrison's successor as MP for Chester, said that he was told by multiple constituents that Morrison was "a disgusting pervert" and a "monster".{{cite news|url= https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/ex-chester-mp-gyles-brandreth-15968983|title = Ex-Chester MP Gyles Brandreth was told his predecessor was 'a disgusting pervert'|work = Cheshire Live|publisher = Reach plc|last = Holmes|first = David|date = 13 March 2019|accessdate = 6 June 2022}}

In July 2014, Barry Strevens, a former bodyguard to Margaret Thatcher, claimed that he warned her that Morrison allegedly held sex parties with underage boys.{{cite news|last=Eleftheriou-Smith|first=Loulla-Mae|title=Thatcher 'was warned of Tory child sex party claims'|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/thatcher-was-warned-of-tory-child-sex-party-claims-9631657.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/thatcher-was-warned-of-tory-child-sex-party-claims-9631657.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=6 January 2015|work=The Independent on Sunday|location=London, UK|date=27 July 2014}} Despite his passing on the allegations to Thatcher, Morrison was promoted later to the position of deputy chairman of the Conservative party. Thatcher's parliamentary private secretary, Archie Hamilton, reportedly took notes of what was said. Strevens reflected: "I am sure [Hamilton] would have given her assurances about the rumours, as otherwise she wouldn't have given him the job."

In January 2015, The Daily Telegraph reported allegations that Morrison raped a 14-year-old boy at Elm Guest House in London. The alleged victim said he was walking in the village of Harting in West Sussex in 1982, when Morrison gave him some money and later lured him to London.{{cite news|last=Gardner|first=Bill|title=Murder link to Margaret Thatcher aide accused of raping teenage boy|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London, UK|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11325064/Murder-link-to-Margaret-Thatcher-aide-accused-of-raping-teenage-boy.html|date=5 January 2015}}

In 2019, Morrison was investigated by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), with evidence from Eliza Manningham-Buller (a former director general of MI5), who had been friendly with Morrison for a time. Manningham-Buller said that she may have provided the cabinet secretary with information including the comment that Morrison had a "penchant for small boys".{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/12/ex-mi5-chief-avoided-peter-morrison-funeral-after-child-sexual-abuse-claims |title=Ex-MI5 chief avoided minister's funeral after child abuse claims |newspaper=The Guardian |date=12 March 2019 |author= Owen Bowcott|access-date= 12 March 2019}}

In February 2020, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse claimed senior officials within the Conservative Party knew about allegations concerning Morrison for years but did not pass them on to police.{{cite web |last1=Giordano |first1=Chiara |title=Westminster child sex abuse: Senior police and politicians knew about widespread paedophilia but 'turned a blind eye to it', inquiry finds |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/westminster-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-vip-ring-a9356796.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/westminster-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-vip-ring-a9356796.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=Independent |date=25 February 2020 |access-date=25 February 2020}}