Michael Foot 'infatuated' with young black woman

The former Labour leader, Michael Foot, took a twenty-something black lover in the 1970s, a new biography of the politician claims.

Mr Foot, who married film-maker Jill Craigie in 1949, was 58 when his affair with the 24-year-old "sexually highly charged black woman" began, according to biographer Kenneth Morgan in Michael Foot: A Life to be published next month.

The year-long affair "caused a serious crisis in his relationship to Jill, not least because it involved a significant loan of money to the other woman to pay off her bills," writes Mr Foot's biographer. "There was talk of ending sexual relations and even divorce."

Mr Foot, now 93, is said by The Sunday Times to have been infatuated with the young woman and gave her around £2,000 during their relationship. Craigie first became alerted to her husband's infidelity when Mr Foot tidied up his notoriously dishevelled dress sense.