Ted Heath was a “gay man” - from Pink News - all the latest gay news from the gay community

Ted Heath was a "gay man"

By Marc Shoffman • February 10, 2006 - 0:00

Edward Heath was Prime Minister between 1970 and 1974. He died last year.

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A book written by a friend of the late Sir Edward Heath is set to revive rumours that the former PM was homosexual.

Gay entrepreneur, Jeremy Norman devotes a whole chapter to Mr Heath in his autobiography, No Make Up: Straight Tales of a Queer Life.

Mr Norman, who founded gay club Heaven, told the Evening Standard, "Unquestionably, he was a gay man."

"My feeling is that he took the cold, calculated decision as a young man to sacrifice his sex life in order to become Prime Minister. My partner, Derek Frost, decorated his house in Salisbury many years ago and we developed a friendship with him. Sir Edward would ring us up late at night. Basically, he was a lonely person. In his own rather crippled way he was reaching out to us without ever being able to say 'I want you as a friend'."

"There were times when I thought he was going to allow a little of his hemline to slip, but it never really did."

"We felt sorry for him in a way. I would sit listening to Dame Moura Lympany playing the piano in his sitting room while Derek and Sir Edward pored over choices of fabrics. He just loved the whole process of creating a fabulous house, which his place in Salisbury is."

Sir Edward was one of just 17 Conservative MPs who voted for the equalisation of the age of consent to 16 in 1998. He served as Prime Minister between 1970 and 1974 and died last year.

No one has ever claimed to have had a gay relationship with Sir Edward.

A Conservative Party spokesman told PinkNews.co.uk: "We would never comment on speculation in books or anywhere whether the person is dead or alive."

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