`I'm gay and smoke dope' - Tory MEP

A CONSERVATIVE MEP faces deselection after being found with gay pornography and cannabis in his airline baggage.

Tom Spencer, who has been married for 20 years and has two daughters, yesterday admitted being "very foolish" after he was stopped by Customs officers at Heathrow when he flew in from Amsterdam. But he said: "I intend to be entirely honest about this. I'm gay and I've always been gay - my wife and I discussed this before we were married."

Mr Spencer, 50, who represents Surrey in the European Parliament, paid a pounds 600 fine in a confidential, out-of-court settlement after the pornography and drugs were discovered in his bag. Yesterday, he admitted smoking cannabis occasionally, although he denied he was a "drug user". "I suppose I'm like all children of the 1960s - although unlike President Clinton I did inhale - but it's not central to my life," he said.

"I've always been liberal on social issues of this kind, and part of the way we've lived our lives is occasionally I would go away for a weekend. And so I went for a weekend in Amsterdam, while I was there I was given some drugs, which I should have thrown away - but I didn't, I wasn't concentrating."

Mr Spencer's wife, Liz, said she had known of her husband's sexuality when they met at university, and they had "talked through the consequences" before they married. "We believed we could make it work, and, I have to say, I believe we have," she said.

Michael Ancram, the Tory Party Chairman, said he would refer the matter to the Conservatives' ethics and integrity committee. "In the light of press reports and Mr Spencer's position as an MEP, and as a candidate in the coming European elections, I will be inviting the Board of Management of the Conservative party, on Monday, to refer this matter to the Ethics and Integrity Committee for urgent consideration."