The Daily Telegraph has today reported that a married cabinet minister is considering taking action to prevent allegations that he has had gay affairs with a Whitehall official and a journalist. The claims follow the announcement yesterday that the prisons minister Crispin Blunt is to divorce his wife to allow him to "come to terms with his homosexuality."The newspaper claims that the minister in question has become the victim of innuendo laced and proactive blogs, which have not in themselves outed him. The Daily Telegraph claims that they have received details of two alleged lovers of the minister; a journalist and a Whitehall official.
PinkNews.co.uk editorial staff have been told by one highly influential blogger to "get up early on Sunday", suggesting that a Sunday newspaper will be publishing revelations relating to a cabinet minister. Further emails from the blogger link to photographs of a particular Conservative cabinet minister who has been the subject of rumours relating to his sexuality in the past.
Friends of the minister told the Daily Telegraph that the minister will take legal action if the rumours should be published in the mainstream media."He is happily married and is not gay, it is as simple as that," one source told the newspaper.
"He will not hesitate before taking the necessary action should someone overstep the mark and suggest something which is not true."
A source close to a journalist rumoured to have been in a relationship with the minister told the Daily Telegraph: "He has never met the minister. As someone who works in the media, he has never even been in the same room as him."
The source added: "If he was asked about an affair and it was true, he’d say publicly that he didn’t want to comment on a personal relationship. But in this case he doesn’t want to give the claims any credibility by publicly refuting them."