Procurer Executive

Recently released official documents have revealed how, during the 1950s and 1960s the government employed an official procurer of pornography, rent-boys and prostitutes. The primary purpose for these activities was to supply visiting foreign dignitaries and businessmen. It was hoped that by satisfying their basest desires at the taxpayer’s expense, they would be more amenable to signing contracts worth billions of pounds to the UK. However, as the Profumo affair showed, many British politicians of the period also had an insatiable appetite for prostitutes and sleaze. Consequently, the official procurer was frequently called upon to supply their needs as well. The first 'Procurer Executive' was Tory peer Lord Boothby, appointed by Prime Minister Harold MacMillan in 1959. Bisexual Boothby was considered ideal for the job, with contacts, including the notorious Kray twins, throughout the London sex trade.

One of Boothby's earliest assignments was to procure young rent-boys for a visiting Arab trade delegation. The peer proved adept at devising unusual recruitment methods - on one occasion he drove an Austin Cambridge through Piccadilly Circus with his naked arse hanging out of the window. In another celebrated incident, whilst scouting for talent for a forthcoming visit by Moroccan officials, Boothby stripped naked, sprayed himself all over with metallic paint, and lay on top of a plinth in the St Martin’s Brass Rubbing Centre whilst a party of Boy Scouts was visiting. As the 1960s progressed the government found the peer's encyclopaedic knowledge of porn and smut to be invaluable in meeting the increasing demands of British officials for bizarre erotic experiences. Indeed, by 1962 he was increasingly involved in procuring for establishment figures rather than visiting foreign dignitaries.

In one celebrated incident, Boothby spent three days scouring Soho brothels for six black prostitutes willing to dress in grass skirts and pretend to be African natives for one of War Minister Lord Carlisle’s notorious “Zulu Parties”. At these parties Lord Carlisle would strip naked and have black boot polish rubbed all over his body by a footman, before putting war paint on his face, donning a loin-cloth and dancing around his garden brandishing a spear pretending to be a Zulu chief. He would often climax his performance by buggering every male under the age of 25 present, before having frenzied sex with the “native women”, as he liked to call the prostitutes. One night the minister became so drunk that he ran out of his Hampstead house (still dressed as a Zulu warrior) and, pursued by the police, managed to reach the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Awoken by the noise, Prince Philip fired a shotgun at Lord Carlisle from an upstairs window, shouting: “Get my elephant gun Liz, the bloody natives are revolting again!”. Before His Highness could reload, the police captured Lord Carlisle. A D-Notice was swiftly issued and the incident kept out of the newspapers.