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Christine Keeler was just 19 when she became embroiled in a sex scandal that would bring down the British government. Not only was she vilified at the time, but the affair stalked her throughout her life.

That at least, is the popular myth. In the October 1964 general Election, Labour actually won by the narrowest of margins, taking 317 seats, a majority of just four, the smallest since 1847. Although the party enjoyed a 3.5% swing from the Conservatives, its share of the vote did not actually increase. Significantly, the Tory turnout was two million down on 1959. The swing in the regions was somewhat uneven. Although the Tories held up in the Midlands, they saw the capital and the south-east move Labour’s way. The Liberals did well in Scotland and doubled their vote for the second successive election, although they won just nine seats.

Labour’s victory was largely put down to the popular and populist leadership of Harold Wilson, which had done much to boost Labour morale in the run up to the election. Wilson rallied the Labour vote and benefited from the disillusionment of Conservative voters, many of whom stayed at home on polling day.

One could easily argue that, after 13 years in power, winning a fourth term in office was always going to be a difficult task. The Conservative campaign was also criticised for not inspiring the faithful and for failing to take Labour to task over their policy commitments.

The Profumo Affair, with its ingredients of sex, aristocrats and espionage, was a scandal so perfect it remains one of the most enduring in modern British political history. It is also a story that is often remembered as an overture to the Swinging Sixties – a tale of sexual liberation and hope, but one in which everyone who took part was punished. Most of all, it was perhaps an overstated drama that, whilst capturing the public’s imagination, was merely the final nail in the coffin for Macmillan’s cabinet rather than the all important catalyst for destruction.

It was the British poet Philip larkin who wrote in “Annus Mirabilis” that:

Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.

If he was factually correct, then Miss Keeler had already hit the ground running.

It was 1961 in London and 19-year-old model Christine Keeler was sleeping with both John Profumo, 46, the Conservative Secretary of State for War, and Yevgeny Ivanov, 31, a naval attaché at the Soviet embassy, and a spy. Keeler’s enabler was her friend Stephen Ward, an osteopath and amateur artist who moved in aristocratic circles and introduced her to both men.

After the affair was exposed, Profumo resigned, Keeler went to prison for perjury and Ward took his own life. There would be no fulfilling life for Keeler but for Profumo, there would be redemption. After his resignation, he worked as a volunteer at Toynbee Hall, a charity in East London, and became its chief fundraiser. These charitable activities helped to restore his reputation and he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1975.