 | 'The people involved in the dirty tricks are disappointed and disaffected because they don't have the positions in the party which they think they're worthy of. They are really bitter, twisted individuals,' Sources close to Mrs Adams and Mr Godman in the Scotsman, 5 th August 1997. |  |
The Scotsman understands that the Paisley North MP, Irene Adams, and Norman Godman, the member for Greenock and Inverclyde, have been the victims of malicious whispering campaigns in Westminster and council circles.
The inquiry will consider allegations that one man who falsely suggested that Mr McMaster was homosexual and had AIDS was involved in these campaigns also. It is being alleged in Labour circles that the man was intent on supplanting the MPs with three councillors from Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.
As reported yesterday, Tony Blair has ordered an investigation into allegations that a whispering campaign by senior members of the Labour Party may have been a key factor in Mr McMaster's death, which was discovered last Monday.
The Scotsman understands that in his suicide note, which condemns the role of Tommy Graham, the MP for Renfrewshire West, and Lord Dixon, Labour's deputy chief whip in the Commons until last year, and alludes to the whispering campaign, Mr McMaster describes the man responsible as "descending from the gutter to the sewer". He also feared that the man would try to blacken his name further, even after his death.
Lord Dixon and Mr Graham, who could not be contacted yesterday, have denied that they were responsible for the gay and AIDS smears.
Senior Labour sources yesterday said that efforts had been made to ruin the reputations of Mrs Adams and Mr Godman, who were friends of Mr McMaster, as part of a bitter power-struggle for the control of Renfrewshire politics. Mrs Adams has been falsely accused of having an affair with Mr McMaster and other MPs. Mrs Adams has also wrongly been branded a recovering alcoholic.
The accusations relating to her are said to have stemmed from jealousies that surfaced in 1990 when she won the selection battle to contest Paisley North for Labour.
Mr Godman is alleged to have been "bad-mouthed" over his performance at Westminster since becoming an MP. He has been accused of failing to hold surgeries and has been described as being over-rated.
In both cases, the suggestion being made is that the whispering campaigns had been calculated to diminish their reselection chances and pave the way for three ambitious councillors close to the man most involved in the smearing.
None of the councillors at the centre of the claims could be contacted last night.
"The people involved in the dirty tricks are disappointed and disaffected because they don't have the positions in the party which they think they're worthy of. They are really bitter, twisted individuals," said sources close to Mrs Adams and Mr Godman.
Another Labour source said: "This man and his friends want to run things at a parliamentary and council level in Renfrewshire. In the west of Scotland, we have the worst kind of 'Old Labour' and I think we owe it to Gordon's memory to clean things up."
Neither Mrs Adams nor Mr Godman were prepared to comment on the rumours or what information they would pass to the party chief whip, Nick Brown, who is to investigate the McMaster affair. Both welcomed the inquiry, however, and promised to co-operate fully. "I will do everything that is asked of me by the family and the party. I will not let Gordon McMaster down in life or after," Mrs Adams said.
A source within the chief whip's office said that Mr Brown would investigate the allegations revealed by The Scotsman.
Paul Mack, a Renfrewshire councillor who was expelled from the Labour Party after falsely claiming to be an official candidate, was still unavailable for comment last night.
He is understood to have been criticised in the suicide note, although newspaper reports have not directly linked him to poison pen letters that the MP is said to have received from a local councillor prior to his death.
Colleagues say Mr Mack has not been seen in the chambers in the last two weeks.
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