Custodian of morality throws down gauntlet

SUPREMELY confident or dangerously foolhardy, David Evans MP, self-appointed custodian of Tory morality, has issued his own 'leg-over' challenge to journalists, writes Mary Braid.

The right-winger, regarded by some as a touch holier-than-thou since his attack on disgraced fellow MP, Tim Yeo, claims that the entire press corps could follow him until Doomsday and find 'nothing in my locker'. In an interview in the Spectator, Mr Evans, self-made millionaire and quintessential working-class Tory, says being 'the most boring bloke of all' keeps him safe from sexual and financial scandal. With breath-taking modesty he says: 'There's no flats, no bankruptcies. I'm not a homosexual, I do love my wife, and if there's one person who can take the moral high ground, it's David Evans.'

But can the man who drew that distinction between the sin of committing adultery and getting caught categorically state he has never been unfaithful to Janice, his wife of 38 years? Has he ever had an illicit 'leg-over'? Janice would not want to read about that kind of thing, but Mr Evans can give that assurance.

The pronouncements of the MP for Welwyn Hatfield and executive member of the 1922 Committee provide vivid testiment of powerful Tory sentiment unleashed by the back to basics strategy. He would hand and flog, use corporal punishment, weed out social security scroungers and toughen up those immigration rules. Mr Evans, 58, sticks with his original assertion that if back to basics is not a moral crusade, it ought to be. For him the campaign hits a 'bull's eye', being just what the people want.