Harvey Proctor

There comes a point when individual incidents cease to look like isolated lapses and begin to suggest something more troubling. I fear we may have reached that point with Reform UK. Following the tragic murder of my dear friend Ann Widdecombe, I made what I regarded as an entirely uncontroversial appeal: that politicians of every party should respect the police’s request not to speculate publicly about the motive while a murder investigation remained under way. Ann Widdecombe understood something that appears increasingly rare in politics Reasonable people are entitled to disagree with that view. What surprised me was not disagreement but the response.

Harriet Harman has declared that the next deputy leader of the Labour party “definitely needs to be a woman.” I greatly respect Baroness Harman, but such a view is absurd and discriminatory. Equality must be rooted in mandate and merit, not gender diktat. Why should men not receive equal protection for their health? For nearly three decades, Britain has had a Minister for Women. Successive governments of all political shades have maintained the role. Yet in all that time, no Minister for Men has ever been appointed. The result is a glaring hole in policymaking, where male-specific issues are consistently ignored. The figures are stark. Every week, 84 men in this country take their own lives. Three out of every four suicides are male.

On March 4, 2015, I sat in the bedroom of my home, an old farmhouse overlooking the rolling beauty of the Vale of Belvoir, sipping tea with my partner, Terry. It was an ordinary early morning - until an unexpected knock shattered its peace. Through the glass, I saw the police. My first thought was that something was afoot at Belvoir Castle, where I worked as Private Secretary for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. But as I opened the door, my world collapsed. A police officer handed me a search warrant. Subsequently, I now know it was an illegal warrant. Then, like an invading force, around 20 Metropolitan Police officers, the majority in pale blue forensic suits, stormed my home, and a little later, my office in the Estate Office.