Max Clifford denies covering up Alan Clark's underage sex scandal - The Independent

Last night Mr Clifford, who was unaware his comments were being recorded, strenuously denied that he had told the girls' family to stay quiet about the allegations. At the time that he learnt of the allegations, in the 1990s, Mr Clifford did not represent Mr Clark – but he did act for the alleged victims' family, who made less serious, but more titillating, claims about the MP.

Mr Clark, a long-serving MP and minister in Margaret Thatcher's government who died in 1999, said of those claims at the time: "Of course I deny them. I have to deny them."

Mr Clark, a Tory grandee who lived at Saltwood Castle in Kent, was known to be a philanderer. In his diaries, he recalled encountering his wife-to-be Jane (they married when he was 30 and she 16) when she was aged 14: "This is very exciting. She is the perfect victim, but whether or not it will be possible to succeed I can't tell at present."

In the video, which appears to be at least 10 years old, Mr Clifford boasted about his ability to keep embarrassing material out of the media and said he created a "false image" for clients.

"No problems at all as long as they're not interfering with little kids. Absolutely no problems," he told the interviewer (who was out of shot).

"Because I know that the truth will destroy them, and they don't deserve that. So I create a false image. I'm deceiving people. I'm lying, for sure."

Mr Clifford added: "But for me, it's the same kind of lie when you go to a dinner party, and your host says: 'Did you enjoy the meal?', and you think: well it was awful. You say: 'It was lovely, thank you.' It's that kind of situation." Asked about his role in representing the women who accused Mr Clark of sexual misconduct, Mr Clifford said: "You couldn't have written the script, to make it even better and inflame it. And Alan Clark loved the whole thing… He'd used them so they wanted to make money out of it… He enjoyed it: he sold even more books... The only slightly serious side about it was he'd actually interfered with those girls from [the time they were] 14."

Last night Mr Clifford denied that he had suppressed the story about Mr Clark. He told The Independent: "Did I ever say to anybody: 'I do not want you to write about Alan Clark having underage sex with underage girls'? The answer is no. From a financial point of view, they would've got even more money for that. I would've got more money from it."

The publicist, whose work now includes being a PR ambassador for Children in Need, added: "It's a lot of rubbish. One of the girls did an interview [with a newspaper] but of course there was no proof he had done that. I wasn't particularly going to break a story on Alan Clark and then hide something. I didn't ever say to them don't talk to them about having underage sex with him. Was I in any way, shape or form responsible for it not coming out? No."

Mr Clark's widow, Jane, was unavailable for comment.