“The Tory Party in the late 1970s and 1980s was a hot bed of depravity – because they were in power, members thought they could get away with anything. And they did!” declares Anthony Prickwell, a former Conservative Party official. “Everyone, from Cabinet ministers and MPs, right down to rank and file party members were involved in the most amazing debauchery and sexual depredations. And then there were the celebrities! At first we thought they were supporting us because they liked to be associated with power, success and the glamour of Mrs Thatcher, but that was before we realised that Jimmy Savile was working his way through the Young Conservatives!” As Prickwell reveals in today’s Daily Norks, sexually deviant celebrities flocked to the Conservative Party, believing they could indulge their sexual depravities with impunity, effectively protected by the government. “Like-minded senior party officials welcomed them with open arms – it was like there was a permanent orgy going on within the organisation,” he says. “Those pre-election rallies were the worst, with drink and drug fuelled sex parties constantly going on behind the scenes. No young person was safe from these sexual predators at such events.” Indeed, Prickwell recalls being told of how, at the 1983 election rally at Wembley Arena, future party leader and Foreign Secretary William Hague found himself trapped in a broom cupboard with madcap Disc Jockey Kenny Everett. “Apparently Everett, dressed as Mrs Thatcher, fondled his buttocks,” he says. “The long term effects on Hague were devastating: not only did he lose his hair, but he turned to drink, regularly downing nineteen pints in an evening and developed an aversion to women. It took years for his career to get back on track.”

Although Mr Hague’s office has denied that any such incident had ever taken place and that he had never even listened to Kenny Everett on the radio, let alone met him, Prickwell is adamant that the Conservative party was rife with sexual misconduct in the Thatcher-era. “The level of sexual abuse going on was quite shocking – it was happening at every level. Back in 1979, for instance, on election night, I remember hearing a commotion coming from the upstairs function room in my local constituency’s Conservative Club – when I looked through the door I was shocked to see a chap from the Young Conservatives bent over a table, trousers around his ankles, being sexually abused with a cucumber by the constituency party chairman, whilst the treasurer, vice-chairman and secretary held the boy down.” According to Prickwell, the appalling scene was being watched over by several other senior figures from the local party, including the newly re-elected MP. “He was clearly enjoying what he saw, guffawing loudly between puffs on his cigar,” the former party worker claims. “Obviously, I mentioned it to Conservative Central, but I was told that this was a traditional victory celebration and quite normal. It seemed pointless to report the matter to the police as the local Chief Constable was a personal friend of our MP!”

But it was at national level that the worst excesses occurred, Prickwell claims. “The annual party conference became a sexual free-for-all, with delegates and celebrity guests indulging in all manner of shenanigans,” he recalls. “I myself witnessed Morecambe and Wise ‘spit-roasting’ a well-known back bench MP’s young female research assistant in the MP’s hotel room during the 1983 conference -several cabinet ministers and top Tory financial backers were also present. I swear the incident contributed to Eric’s fatal heart attack the following year – he was sweating profusely and gasping for breath towards the end of the performance, barely able to say his trademark catchphrase ‘What do you think of it so far?’” Other incidents he recalled in the newspaper article included walking in on comic Les Dawson snorting cocaine off of Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw’s penis in a toilet cubicle during the 1981 conference and witnessing former Opportunity Knocks host and notorious right wing activist Hughie Greene presiding over a late night private ‘talent show’ for Young Conservatives at the 1980 conference. “It was before an audience of Tory grandees – he had half a dozen of them on stage, with their flies unzipped,” he says. “Then a group of male students from the Young Conservatives were brought on stage, with Hughie declaring ‘Opportunity knocks for anyone who sucks these true blue cocks’ as he gestured toward the grandees.”

Prickwell’s revelations come hot on the heels of allegations that a senior advisor to Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was part of a paedophile ring involved in the systematic abuse of young boys from a North Wales children’s home in the 1980s. However, he claims to have no knowledge of such events. “Look, if I’d known anything about that sort of stuff I would have blown the whistle immediately,” he told the Daily Norks. “All the stuff I saw or heard about involved people over the age of consent – they were clearly loving it, even when they were being held down on a billiard table and abused with a snooker cue. But child abuse – that’s just disgusting!” Pressed further on the question of why he has waited so long to make his revelations, the former party official claimed that he didn’t realise any offences had taken place. “It was the eighties – people had different attitudes to sex then,” he said. “It was all seen as a bit of fun. It was like Maggie said when she stumbled across Bob Monkhouse and Sir Keith Joseph taking it in turns to whip a naked woman smeared with cream and strapped to a bed – ‘Boys will be boys, won’t they?’”

Not surprisingly, the Conservative Party has moved quickly to dismiss Prickwell’s claims, pointing out that he left the party in 2008 to join rival right-wing outfit UKIP and alleging that his story is politically motivated. “These outrageous allegations are simply a piece of reprehensible opportunism designed to cause the government as much embarrassment as possible,” a spokesperson said. “It is notable that all of the people he has accused of sexual impropriety are conveniently dead, preventing them either from defending themselves or suing him and this tabloid rag for libel. Mr Prickwell is besmirching the names of several fine entertainers and politicians for political capital.” In spite of this denial, some political commentators suspect there could be some credence in Prickwell’s allegations. “The fact is that the Tories have form in the deviance department – some of us haven’t forgotten Harvey Proctor and his rent-boy antics,” says Professor Ron Crack, Chair of Politics at Bracknell Horticultural College, referring to the 1980s Tory back bencher renowned for his caning sessions with school uniform-clad young male prostitutes. “I put it down to their public school educations – all those cold showers with lots of posh naked boys, canings and midnight sexual fumblings in the dorms is bound to lead to some very peculiar attitudes to sex.” Prickwell maintains that his claims are absolutely true. “Trust me, back in the eighties when Maggie was in charge, it was a real man’s party, but once they replaced her with John Major, it all changed” he says. “Believe me, this current crop of pretty boys wouldn’t have cut it back then – someone like David Cameron wouldn’t have lasted five minutes before being bent over the cabinet table and having his arse hammered by the likes of Norman St. John Stevas. That’s why I joined UKIP – it’s still a real man’s party of reactionary policies and xenophobia, with a real man in charge. God that Nigel Farage can roughly withdraw my EU membership any day!”