More crumpet, Prime Minister?

Why Tony Blair is having tea with a pornographer

Ric Porter takes a deep breath and, in the manner of a children's storyteller, prepares himself to begin. "Well," he says, "in alphabetical order, there's Amateur Video, Asian Babes, Best of Asian Babes, Best of Big and Black, Best of Big Ones, Best of Electric Blue..."

On he ploughs, not strictly alphabetically, through Big and Black, Pantie [sic] Parade, Contact Girls, All Girl Action, 50 and Over, 40-Plus, Genuine Wives, Horny Housewives, Mothers-in-Law, New Talent, Only 18, X-Treme, Young and Old. Porter, the affable, softly spoken editor of all these titles, continues slowly so as to make recording the list easier: "For Women, For Men, Nude Readers' Wives, Readers' Wives Bumper Video Pack, Real Wives, Red Hot Pack, Stuffed..."

These are some of the publications that are causing Richard Desmond, pornographer and proprietor of the Daily Express and celebrity magazine OK, so many problems. If it were not for these top-shelf magazines, it is unlikely such a fuss would have been made over the now-infamous £100,000 donation he gave to the Labour Party in 2000. They are causing problems, too, for Tony Blair, Prime Minister, family man and quasi-Catholic. Already, two female members of his Cabinet, Clare Short and Tessa Jowell, have spoken out against accepting the money, questions are being asked of his judgement in getting into bed with Mr Desmond, while, in the Labour movement as a whole, a tangible sense of unease is growing.

Any day now, Mr Desmond will take tea with Mr Blair at 10 Downing Street, a private meeting at which Sorority Sex Kittens, Spunk Sucking Sluts, and Jane's Big Jug Jamboree – some of the programmes shown recently on Mr Desmond's Television X adult channel – are unlikely to be discussed. But perhaps it would be better for the Prime Minister if they were. During an embarrassing interview with Jeremy Paxman on the BBC's Newsnight last month, Mr Blair claimed that he did not know much about Mr Desmond's porn operation, despite having been shown a selection of the titles mentioned above by the late Tony Bevins, former political editor of the Daily Express, two years ago).

Instead, Mr Blair made much of the fact that the Department of Trade and Industry had ruled that Mr Desmond was a "fit and proper" person to own the Express titles – the (somewhat circular) implication being that he was therefore a fit and proper person to contribute to Labour funds. Yet the DTI has just admitted that it failed to investigate Mr Desmond's pornographic websites before making that decision. In short, it would probably do no harm if Mr Blair were to look into these matters more closely. If he did, he might think again about that cash.

When, during a rare interview given to The Independent last week, Porter has finally finished reading out the list of titles from Desmond's Fantasy Publications stable, he says that it makes 42. In fact, there are 43. (How many other editors can boast that they oversee more titles than they can count?) His small staff of 14 designers must hit two to three deadlines every day to ensure that the titles – most of which are monthly – come out on time. They operate from the offices of Desmond's Northern & Shell company on the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London, a slate-grey office block at the side of the dock in which James Bond chased a female assassin in The World is Not Enough.

"It's just an ordinary job really," says Ric Porter. "It is putting together magazines in the same way technically as newspapers are put together. We are all designers and journalists working in the same technical and professional way as everyone else, from art directors onwards.

"When I go to a dinner party and tell people what I do, they always want to know if it is a sexy job. I tell them no, it isn't. We don't have naked models walking round the office. We don't do shoots; mostly we buy pictures in. It's a very ordinary working environment. Sure, we have the covers for that month hanging up, but besides that it is just like any other office. People have posters up of their favourite group, say S Club 7, but that's all. It's 50-50 men and women, and we're just like everyone – we like to get our work done and go to the pub."

Porter, 44, developed links with Desmond while Porter was making adult videos. He was asked to help launch some adult films for Fantasy Publications and then moved over to the magazines. He is now managing editor of all the magazine titles, a producer/director for Television X, and a consultant on Desmond's porn website, www.fantasy121.com. He has never been married but says that his profession has never been a problem for women. When asked what his mother thinks of his job, he replies, "Nothing", and continues: "None of this is hardcore pornography. We wouldn't go down the road of hardcore pornography even if it were legal. We have found an area that suits Fantasy Publications that is successful and legal, using soft images, and we're sticking with it."

Fantasy Publications and Portland Enterprises, which owns www.fantasy 121.com, are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Portland Investments Ltd. Portland Investments is owned by Richard Desmond. In spite of his ownership, however, Desmond does not like to be described as a pornographer. Because his titles do not feature penetration or clear pictures of oral sex, he does not regard it as pornography, preferring the term "adult lifestyle". The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word is: "The explicit description or exhibition of sexual subjects or activity in literature, painting, film etc in a manner intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic feelings."

When Desmond acquired Express Newspapers in November 2000 for £125m, he hoped that respectability would follow. Instead, his reputation as a porn baron – and his sometimes crass and bizarre behaviour – dragged him down.

As he wielded the axe at the Express building in Blackfriars, slashing staff to the detriment of morale and professionalism, journalists could only look on in wonderment as Desmond's butler made regular forays to his office carrying a banana – the proprietor's favourite snack – on a silver platter. Desmond's foul language and the presence on the news floor of what some staff described as "heavies" only served to reduce his standing as a serious Fleet Street proprietor. Senior staff left in droves. Before she parted company with Desmond, the Express editor Rosie Boycott was in the habit of having her office swept for listening devices. One staff member once described hearing Boycott dictating a letter to Desmond in which every other word was "fucking". She later explained: "It's the only language he understands."

One journalist said: "It's a terribly intimidating atmosphere. Desmond marches down the office with his cigar – he always has a cigar in his mouth – and everybody looks down. When I first started, someone warned me to look busy and not catch his eye. Some of the people he surrounds himself with are, well, a bit frightening."

Richard Desmond, 51, was born in north London and left school at 14. In 1974, he published a small magazine for musicians before moving into the adult industry in 1982, when he won the rights to publish a British version of Penthouse. In the mid 1980s, after the Penthouse deal was rescinded, he began publishing his own magazines, set up hugely lucrative telephone sex lines and went on to bring the world Television X, on cable and satellite, in 1995. When he took over the Express titles, many argued that Desmond had bitten off more than he could chew. However, Northern & Shell's latest accounts, to the end of December 2000, suggest that they may have been wrong. The company turned in a modest £3.53m profit, compared with a loss of £2m the previous year.

In spite of its proliferation of titles, however, Portland Investments made just £299,000. This is a staggeringly low sum as a proportion of turnover. No figure is given in the accounts for 2000, but the year before it was stated as £21.7m. Mr Blair might, therefore, have some advice to give Mr Desmond on sound economic principles when they meet today.

The Prime Minister might also like to consider the way in which the people – the "models" – used in Desmond's magazines, television programmes and videos are treated and how heartbreakingly little they are paid. "A lot depends on whether it's open-leg work or closed-leg work, and then there's solo, girl-girl, boy-girl, group," says "Michelle", whose south-London agency, Adoration Models, has supplied hundreds of women to photographers and videographers whose work is bought by Fantasy Publications and Television X. "For open-leg work, you're looking at a minimum of £150 a day, probably £200. For video work, it's about £180 if you're solo, £200 girl/girl and up to £500 for real sex, boy/girl.

"We are very careful about who we take on and to whom we send them. There are some unscrupulous operators out there and we try to check them out. If someone is dodgy, word gets around fast. We always negotiate precisely what our girls will be paid and what they will be required to do. If they turn up somewhere and they are asked to do anything that hasn't been agreed upon, we tell them to refuse and walk out.

"We select the girls very carefully. We talk them through situations and ask if they would be comfortable with that. Pretty quickly, you can tell who will do what. If they obviously don't want to get into adult modelling, we advise them to try conventional. But lots don't mind. There are lots of exhibitionists out there."

Even though Desmond's television station and magazines don't show hardcore sex, edited versions of films and photographs produced from encounters between these models and photographers/videographers do appear in his programmes and titles. In the adult industry, however, his finished products are derided. One insider said his magazines "give porn a bad name".

Tony Savage, whose company Savage Secrets produces hardcore videos, says of Desmond: "He's regarded as a joke. He has made his money by promising to deliver more to the punter than he actually does and he got away with it for so long because the law said you couldn't be prosecuted for not breaking the law. Trading-standards couldn't do him for claiming his products were hardcore when they actually weren't.

"This industry is divided into two types: those who consider it an art form and apply themselves to it, and those who churn out overpriced rubbish. Desmond is the latter."

It is easy to see why the industry has such a low opinion of Mr Blair's friend. Contrary to what you may have thought if you had spied 50 and Over on the top shelf of your local newsagent, the title does not pander to men with a penchant for very large breasts. It refers instead to the ages of the "models" inside. Many are grandmothers demonstrating a startling flexibility. The cover of last month's issue depicts an ageing woman in a latex minidress above the words: "Granny needs a good stroke."

Asked who buys 50 and Over, Ric Porter admits he does not know as there has been no market research into sales. It could, he says, be men over 50 or young men with a mother fixation. And the other titles are no better. Indeed, Desmond's empire could be accused of being ambivalent towards its exploitation of ethnic minorities. On his website, under "ethnic", one girl, Shaheeda, is pictured naked in a variety of poses. The accompanying text reads: "It's hard to believe that we found Shaheeda in the slums of Bombay. She was begging in the streets so we gave her $100 to strip for us." Text such as this is often made up. But even if it is, it may be regarded as an insight into the minds of the people who wrote it.

Mr Blair would do well to see some of this. He may also wish to pay a £9.99-a-month subscription to Desmond's website. For that sum, he can use the company's webcam and see "young girls, housewives, mature wives, old ladies, fat girls and girls with huge tits" stripping off and performing sexual acts in a flat rented by the company near the Northern & Shell offices.

When asked about this side of the business – which is portrayed in Desmond's magazine as a hardcore operation – Porter said he knew nothing of it. However, the description above is from a two-page spread on the webcam in May's Pantie Parade – managing editor, Ric Porter.

Viewers are invited to send requests to the flat's occupants. Working in shifts, they will perform the acts the viewers request. "It's a wank a minute, and don't forget that the girls are talking to you and doing what you ask them to do," the text reads. "Remember, these girls are turned on by talking to you! It's what gets them going and the more you say to them, the hornier and hotter they get." Some of the girls, the piece says, will even send viewers their panties. "These girls were chosen because they have no inhibitions and are prepared to do anything. You won't find any shrinking violets on these cams. Ask them what you like, no matter how horny or bizarre."

Something, then, for the Prime Minister to fall back on come the next general election. If asked nicely, these girls might even vote Labour.