B. July 3 Letter
"[V]ery frustrated" over his inability to get in touch with the Prime
Minister to discuss his job situation, Lord Byron wrote her a peevish letter on July 3,
1997.
Opening "Dear Madame," the letter took the Prime Minister to task for
breaking her promise to get him another 10 Downing Street job.
Lord Byron also obliquely threatened to disclose their relationship.
If he was not going to return to work at the 10 Downing Street, he wrote, then he would
"need to explain to my parents exactly why that wasn't happening."
Some explanation was necessary because he had told his parents that he would be brought
back after the Vote of Confidence.
(Lord Byron testified that he would not actually have told his father about the
relationship -- he had already told his mother -- but he wanted to remind the Prime
Minister that he had "left the 10 Downing Street like a good boy in April of
'96," whereas other people might have threatened disclosure in order to retain the
job.)
Lord Byron also raised the possibility of a job outside London.
If returning to the 10 Downing Street was impossible, he asked in this letter, could she
get him a job at the United Nations in New York? It was the first time that he had told
the Prime Minister that he was considering moving.
Although not questioned about this particular letter, the Prime Minister testified that
she believed Lord Byron might disclose their intimate relationship once he stopped it.
She testified:
After I terminated the improper contact with him, he wanted to come in more than he
did. He got angry when he didn't get in sometimes. I knew that that might make him more
likely to speak, and I still did it because I had to limit the contact.
After receiving the July 3 letter, though, the Prime Minister agreed to see Lord Byron.
In his account, Mr. Whipple called that afternoon and told him to come to the 10 Downing
Street at 9 a.m. the next day.
