Editing Harold Macmillan (section)

====Profumo affair====
The [[Profumo affair]] of 1963 permanently damaged the credibility of Macmillan's government. The revelation of the affair between [[John Profumo]] ([[Secretary of State for War]]) and an alleged call-girl, [[Christine Keeler]], who was simultaneously sleeping with the Soviet naval attache Captain [[Yevgeny Ivanov (spy)|Yevgeny Ivanov]] made it appear that Macmillan had lost control of his government and of events in general.<ref name="Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.180">Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.180</ref> In the ensuing Parliamentary debate he was seen as a pathetic figure, while [[Nigel Birch]] declared, in the words of [[Robert Browning|Browning]] on [[Wordsworth]], that it would be "Never glad confident morning again!".<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1963/jun/17/security-mr-profumos-resignation#S5CV0679P0_19630617_HOC_296 SECURITY (MR. PROFUMO'S RESIGNATION) (Hansard, 17 June 1963)]</ref> On 17 June 1963, he survived a Parliamentary vote with a majority of 69,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1963/jun/17/security-mr-profumos-resignation#column_170|title=SECURITY (MR. PROFUMO'S RESIGNATION)  |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507140736/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1963/jun/17/security-mr-profumos-resignation#column_170|date=17 June 1963|archive-date=7 May 2016}}</ref> one fewer than had been thought necessary for his survival, and was afterwards joined in the smoking room only by his son and son-in-law, not by any Cabinet minister. However, Butler and [[Reginald Maudling]] (who was very popular with backbench MPs at that time) declined to push for his resignation, especially after a tide of support from Conservative activists around the country. Many of the salacious revelations about the sex lives of "Establishment" figures during the Profumo affair damaged the image of "the Establishment" that Macmillan was seen as a part of, giving him the image by 1963 of a "failing representative of a decadent elite".<ref name="Goodlad & Pearce, 2013 p.180"/>