British Official Pressed to Quit Over Public Funds for Legal Bills

Britain’s chief financial minister was under pressure Sunday to resign after using public funds to pay legal fees for evicting a sex therapist from his house.

In an unusual midnight statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont admitted that $7,000 was paid by the Treasury toward $35,000 in legal fees needed to oust a tenant, dubbed “Miss Whiplash” by the tabloids, from the basement flat of his London house 18 months ago.

The rest of the legal bill was picked up, Treasury officials said Sunday, by the Conservative Party in the latest furor to surround Lamont, Prime Minister John Major’s closest friend in the beleaguered government.

The call for Lamont’s resignation was led by Labor Party deputy leader Margaret Beckett, who described the action as a “serious error of judgment.”

Lamont defended himself by insisting that the taxpayers’ costs were necessary because his public position demanded the use of lawyers’ time and effort to deal with media inquiries about the affair.

The other legal fees were for the eviction itself, according to Lamont’s statement, which added that the chancellor had “no knowledge” of the details of the bill picked up by the Conservatives.

After Lamont, 50, was appointed chancellor by Major, he moved into an official residence at No. 11 Downing St., next door to the prime minister’s own official residence and office.

Lamont turned over his personal home in the Notting Gate area of West London to a real estate agent, who rented the basement flat to a tenant who turned up as a character in the tabloid press with leather dress and whips, claiming to be a “kinky sex therapist.”

The tenant was not known to either Lamont or his wife, and she moved out after legal proceedings started against her.

Lamont, a former banker, has been dogged by a series of mishaps in his parliamentary and governmental career, some of which reputedly cast doubt on his financial stewardship.

Lamont first surfaced in gossip columns when he appeared in the House of Commons with a black eye, which he first blamed on having run into a door. It was later revealed that the injury was inflicted by a former male friend of heiress Olga Forte, whom Lamont was visiting.

Questions about his personal judgment coincide with widespread criticism in Parliament and the media about his handling of the British economy.

Lamont has presided over the nation’s longest postwar recession. In September, he promised neither to pull Britain out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism nor to devalue the pound. Within days, he did both.

Lamont’s influence was also significant in a deeply unpopular government decision to close down half of Britain’s coal industry.

And just last week, the tabloid press--in full cry--reported that Lamont had exceeded his limit on a credit card on more than 20 occasions and that on five occasions had received legal demands that he immediately pay his bill.