Editing Profumo affair (section)

===Investigation and resignation===
Shortly after Profumo's Commons statement, Ward appeared on [[ITN|Independent Television News]], where he endorsed Profumo's version and dismissed all rumours and insinuations as "baseless".<ref>Irving et al, p. 110</ref> Ward's own activities had become a matter of official concern, and on 1 April 1963 the [[Metropolitan Police]] began to investigate his affairs. They interviewed 140 of Ward's friends, associates and patients, maintained a 24-hour watch on his home, and [[wiretapping|tapped]] his telephone—this last action requiring direct authorisation from Brooke.<ref name="Robertson44">Robertson, pp. 44–45</ref> Among those who gave statements was Keeler, who contradicted her earlier assurances and confirmed her sexual relationship with Profumo, providing corroborative details of the interior of the Chester Terrace house.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 166–67</ref> The police put pressure on reluctant witnesses; Rice-Davies was [[Remand (detention)|remanded]] to [[HM Prison Holloway|Holloway Prison]] for a driving licence offence and held there for eight days until she agreed to testify against Ward.<ref name="Robertson44" /><ref>Parris, pp. 164–65</ref> Meanwhile, Profumo was awarded costs and £50 [[damages]] against the British distributors of an Italian magazine that had printed a story hinting at his guilt. He donated the proceeds to an army charity.<ref>Denning, p. 63</ref>
This did not deter ''Private Eye'' from including "Sextus Profano" in their parody of [[Edward Gibbon|Gibbon]]'s ''[[Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]''.<ref>Profumo, p. 186</ref><ref name="Econ">{{cite news |date=16 March 2006 |title=Why the Profumo affair made the perfect political scandal |newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/5637716}}</ref>

On 18 April 1963 Keeler was attacked at the home of a friend. She accused Gordon, who was arrested and held. According to Knightley and Kennedy's account, the police offered to drop the charges if Gordon would testify against Ward, but he refused.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 170–71</ref> The effects of the police inquiry were proving ruinous to Ward, whose practice was collapsing rapidly. On 7 May he met Macmillan's private secretary, [[Timothy Bligh]], to ask that the police inquiry into his affairs be halted. He added that he had been covering for Profumo, whose Commons statement was substantially false. Bligh took notes but failed to take action.<ref name="DH287">Davenport-Hines, pp. 287–89</ref><ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 177–78</ref> On 19 May Ward wrote to Brooke, with essentially the same request as that to Bligh, only to be told that the [[Powers of the home secretary|Home Secretary had no power]] to interfere with the police inquiry.<ref>Robertson, p. 46</ref> Ward then gave details to the press, but no paper would print the story. He also wrote to Wilson, who showed the letter to Macmillan. Although privately disdainful of Wilson's motives, after discussions with Hollis, the prime minister was sufficiently concerned about Ward's general activities to ask the [[Lord Chancellor]], [[Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne|Lord Dilhorne]], to inquire into possible security breaches.<ref name="DH287" />

On 31 May 1963 at the start of the parliamentary [[Whitsun]] recess, Profumo and his wife flew to [[Venice]] for a short holiday. At their hotel, they received a message asking Profumo to return as soon as possible. Believing that his bluff had been called, Profumo then told his wife the truth, and they decided to return immediately. They found that Macmillan was on holiday in Scotland. On Tuesday 4 June, Profumo confessed the truth to Bligh, confirming that he had lied, resigned from the government, and applied for the office of [[List of stewards of the Chiltern Hundreds|steward of the Chiltern Hundreds]] in order to give up his House of Commons seat. Bligh informed Macmillan of these events by telephone. The resignation was announced on 5 June, when the formal exchange of letters between Profumo and Macmillan was published.<ref>Davenport-Hines, pp. 290–91</ref><ref name="Irving137">Irving et al, pp. 137–38</ref>{{#tag:ref|Macmillan's reply to Profumo's departure, sent from his holiday address in [[Argyllshire]], begins: "The contents of your letter of June 4 have been communicated to me...", indicated that Profumo's letter was read to him over the phone.<ref name= Irving137/>|group= n}} ''[[The Times]]'' called Profumo's lies "a great tragedy for the probity of public life in Britain";<ref>{{cite news |date=6 June 1963 |title=A Shocking Admission |page=13 |newspaper=The Times}}</ref> while the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' hinted that not all the truth had been told and referred to "skeletons in many cupboards".<ref>Young, pp. 25–26</ref>