Editing John Major (section)

===Revelation of affair ===
In 1993 Major sued two magazines, ''[[New Statesman]] and Society'' and ''[[Scallywag (magazine)|Scallywag]]'', as well as their distributors, for reporting rumours of an affair with Clare Latimer, a Downing Street caterer, even though at least one of the magazines had said that the rumours were false. The allegations of an affair with Latimer were indeed proven false. However, an affair with Edwina Currie came out a decade later and both of these publications considered legal action to recover their costs when that happened.<ref name="BBC News">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2286916.stm |title=Major faces legal action over affair |work=BBC News |date=29 September 2002 |access-date=17 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Steve Platt, Fisk |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sue-grab-it-and-run-the-country-the-major-libel-case-was-a-farce-with-a-darker-side-says-steve-platt-editor-of-the-new-statesman-1483606.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220613/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sue-grab-it-and-run-the-country-the-major-libel-case-was-a-farce-with-a-darker-side-says-steve-platt-editor-of-the-new-statesman-1483606.html |archive-date=13 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Sue, grab it and run the country: The Major libel case was a farce with a darker side, says Steve Platt, editor of the New Statesman |work=The Independent |access-date=28 April 2020}}</ref>

In September 2002, it was revealed that, prior to his elevation to the Cabinet, Major had had a four-year-long [[extramarital affair]] with [[Edwina Currie]], from 1984 to 1988.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2286008.stm |title=Major and Currie had four-year affair |work=BBC News  |date=28 September 2002 |access-date=17 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,,801852,00.html |title=The Major-Currie affair&nbsp;– what the papers say |work=The Guardian |location=London |date= 30 September 2002|access-date=17 April 2010 }}</ref> Commentators were quick to refer to Major's previous '[[Back to Basics (campaign)|Back to Basics]]' platform to throw charges of hypocrisy at him. An obituary of [[Tony Newton, Baron Newton of Braintree|Tony Newton]] in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' claimed that if Newton had not kept the affair a closely guarded secret, "it is highly unlikely that Major would have become prime minister".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9168088/Lord-Newton-of-Braintree.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9168088/Lord-Newton-of-Braintree.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=obituaries:Lord Newton of Braintree|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=26 March 2012|access-date=1 April 2012|location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In a press statement, Major said that he was "ashamed" by the affair and that his wife had forgiven him. In response, Currie said "he wasn't ashamed of it at the time and he wanted it to continue."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/7921158/John-Major-Edwina-Currie-and-me-by-Clare-Latimer.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/7921158/John-Major-Edwina-Currie-and-me-by-Clare-Latimer.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=John Major, Edwina Currie and me, by Clare Latimer |work=The Telegraph |date=1 August 2010 |access-date=28 April 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>