Howard Coster, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
So we go back to the 1960s and Tom Driberg. A notorious and flamboyant homosexual when such behaviour was likely to get you a jail sentence. Considering he was an ugly so and so I find it hard to give credence to his claim that no man could resist him. The wages of sin are little enough and he only lived to be 71 though in the 1970s that was not unusual.
Tom was ennobled and became Baron Bradwell, I am surprised he was not known as the bent Baron but being of the left he was not ridiculed in the same way the right was.
The allegations about Driberg’s espionage are legendary. It is fairly certain he was an informer for MI5 and may have been used by them on occasion. He was also supposedly recruited by Czech Intelligence and provided secrets to them though with his MI5 connections he may have been playing them. He was also alleged to have been paid by the KGB, a man of wide ranging tastes, recruited by threatening him with exposure as a homosexual.
Before he was an MP he was a journalist and wrote for the Express with the by-line William Hickey.
In 1942 Tom became an independent MP as member for Maldon. In 1951 he announced his engagement to Ena Mary Binfield who was well aware of his sexual tastes but nonetheless became his wife. The marriage was not a success, Ena obviously thought she could tame him but he could not give up his casual liaisons.
In the 1960s along with Lord Boothby Tom met the Kray twins at parties where young East End lads were served like canapés. Driberg managed to avoid any unsavoury publicity but Boothby did not. These MP fellas seem to lead a charmed life when it comes to avoiding bad publicity.
Tom’s three pillars were his sexuality, he was high Church of England and his left wing politics. In 1920 he even dabbled with the Communist Party. In 1941 he was expelled from the commies for opposing the Nazi-Soviet Pact, a hurdle than many a commie failed to negotiate and became an independent eventually winning the seat of Maldon. By 1945 he had joined the Labour Party and successfully defended his seat under the Labour banner.
Tom was a terrible gossip and very indiscreet, it is a surprise he lasted as long as he did. These days he would probably end up as leader of the Green Party though he might need to change his name first.
© well_chuffed 2026
