More than a political crisis, the affair marked a turning point in British culture—ushering in the permissive society of the Swinging Sixties and forever altering the public’s expectations of political transparency and private morality.
John Profumo in June 1963.Credit: AP
In 2019, the BBC produced a six-part series to reinterpret the 1960s scandal for the #MeToo generation and the storyline also featured in the Netflix hit The Crown. A 1989 film Scandal starred Sir John Hurt, while Andrew Lloyd Webber produced a short-lived West End musical.
Keeler’s own conviction stemmed from the case against jazz singer Aloysius “Lucky” Gordon, her stalker who was jailed in June 1963 for assault. However, his conviction was later overturned when two witnesses came forward to say Keeler had lied under oath about their absence during the alleged attack – claims she admitted in December that year, which led to her being jailed for nine months for perjury.
But her son’s legal team say Keeler was put under pressure by the witnesses and that she lived in fear of Gordon.
Platt first announced his intention to seek a pardon for his mother, which would have to be signed by the King, five years ago and has since worked with lawyers and barristers to build a case.
An application was initially sent to the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic but was redirected to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which told him he should exhaust all legal avenues first.
After four years, the commission responded saying that while there was merit to the case, the events happened too long ago.
“It just means that we now go back to the pardon, we’ve exhausted our legal route,” Platt said.
Platt said the conviction had unjustly tainted his mother’s legacy.
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“She was unbearably honest. I mean, embarrassingly honest,” he said. “She used to say, a liar has to have a good memory. She was entirely without malice. I never saw her do anything of cruelty to somebody or ever be horrible to people.”
The perjury case, he believes, played into a broader narrative that sought to undermine his mother’s credibility.
“When I picked up the history books … I was reading about a woman who had lied, that she lied about being assaulted by a man who was a boyfriend, and she went to prison for that … [but] when I read the court transcripts, that just wasn’t the case. She didn’t do that.”
Platt, who lives in Ireland, also challenged the perception that Keeler profited from the scandal, pointing out that the first person to sell their story to the press was not his mother but society osteopath Stephen Ward, who had introduced her to Profumo and Ivanov.
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As public attitudes have shifted, Platt sees a parallel between his mother’s treatment and more recent cultural reckonings. At the time Macmillan branded Keeler a “tart”, while his successor as prime minister, Harold Wilson, called her a “harlot”.
“I think it’s like the Monica Lewinsky syndrome, isn’t it, where … a woman has an affair with a man, and we blame the woman, we don’t vilify the man,” Platt said.
Despite setbacks, Platt remains optimistic. “My mum didn’t do this while she was alive. She didn’t have the strength or have the faith in the system. But I’m hopeful,” he said.
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