Rightists said to be seeping into Torydom

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 10

Rightists said to be seeping into Torydom

NZPA-AAP London Britain’s governing Conservative Party is reportedly investigating the growing influence in its ranks of an extreme Right-wing faction known as Libertarians. The pro-Tory “Daily Express” said that the group favoured absolute personal freedom including drug-tak-ing and child sex and opposed the welfare system, taxation, and organised political parties. Libertarians had taken control of the Conservatives’ student wing and were spreading their influence to mainstream activities including the House of Commons and constituency branches, the “Express” said.

An internal party inquiry headed by Sir Donald Waters was looking into their activities. It had been set up after a night of drunken vandalism at last month’s annual Federation of Conservative Students conference, at Loughborough University. The “Express” said that the group was extremely well organised and backed by funds from South Africa and Israel, whose interests they supported. Several prominent Conservatives had been named as Libertarian supporters in the group’s pamphlets, one of which said some members had been present at 10

Downing Street when the Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, announced the general election in 1983. They included the Libertarians’ secretary, Alan Tawe, a bookshop manager, Dr Madsden Pirie, president of the influential Adam Smith Institute and a Parliamentary candidate, Teresa Gorman. A Young Conservatives submission to an inquiry last year said that a meeting in 1984 attended by about 60 people, including most of the student wing leaders, had decided to campaign to control the Young Conservatives movement. But they had been hampered by a shortage of money and people and later had turned their attention to constituency branches in particular areas such as Coventry and Edinburgh as militants in the Labour Party had done. The “Express” said that the new campaign had been more successful and that Libertarians were close to gaining control of some constituencies — a step towards putting their members into the House of Commons.

The submission had said, “Where they have tried and failed the establishment has been alerted. The worry is that other constituencies will not make a move until it is too late.”