AHC: Two British PMs having had a relationship/affair with each other at some point

[Tom Colton]

There's a common joke that if Hillary Clinton becomes President (which is looking more likely with each primary, but that's a topic for another discussion), she and Bill Clinton will have become the only two presidents of the United States who have had sex with each other at some point.

Your challenge, should you accept it, is for the equivalent to happen in the United Kingdom. I thought Edwina Currie might've worked at some point given the revelations of her affair with John Major, but her career kind of went nowhere after the salmonella controversy anyway, unless that's butterflied away.

 

[Jonathan]

There's a common joke that if Hillary Clinton becomes President (which is looking more likely with each primary, but that's a topic for another discussion), she and Bill Clinton will have become the only two presidents of the United States who have had sex with each other at some point.

Your challenge, should you accept it, is for the equivalent to happen in the United Kingdom. I thought Edwina Currie might've worked at some point given the revelations of her affair with John Major, but her career kind of went nowhere after the salmonella controversy anyway, unless that's butterflied away.

The real question here is do we want to think of two politicians having a sexual relationship with one another?
It was bad enough having to think of John Prescott having an affair with his secretary.

In June 2007, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, became the first married couple to serve together in HM Cabinet.
So that would be the most recent in which we could have Ed Balls being Prime Minister in 2010, losing his seat in 2015 as in OTL and being replaced by Yvette Cooper, who is only acting Prime Minister?

 

[Jonathan]

Here is a scarier suggestion:

Cherie Blair, who is nominated as the Labour candidate for the new seat of North Thanet in Kent in the 1983 general election, is amazed to see that she has been able to win the seat against conservative candidate, Roger Gale.

She enters parliament along side her husband, Tony, who was elected MP for Sedgefield in the same Election.

The pair begin their move to the top of the party and when Tony becomes Leader of the Labour Party, in 1994, he appointed Cherie as his Shadow Home Secretary.
When the labour party won the General election in 1997, the pair became famous as the working political couple.
Tony Blair is assassinated in 2003, by an activist who many believe did it, due to Tony's policy of military intervention and the War on Terror, Cherie is quickly voted in as new Labour leader and second female Prime Minister of Britain, serving from 2003-2007.

 

[Politibrit]

The real question here is do we want to think of two politicians having a sexual relationship with one another?
It was bad enough having to think of John Prescott having an affair with his secretary.

In June 2007, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, became the first married couple to serve together in HM Cabinet.
So that would be the most recent in which we could have Ed Balls being Prime Minister in 2010, losing his seat in 2015 as in OTL and being replaced by Yvette Cooper, who is only acting Prime Minister?

I think you would need quite an odd scenario to make that happen. For the PM to lose their seat but for the party to cling onto power would be difficult to foresee. Maybe you could have a Lib Dem-Labour coalition succeed in 2010 on the condition of Brown standing down, Ed Miliband decides not to stand, and Balls in his place becomes the insurgent candidate against David Miliband, winning the leadership election and becoming PM. Then you could have a scenario similar to the Blair one above when Balls is shot or otherwise incapacitated, and Cooper is chosen to succeed him.

Perhaps in the future we will see Jeremy Corbyn be suceeded as Prime Minister by Diane Abbott?

 

[Lord Roem]

Roy Jenkins and Tony Crosland had quite a bit of sex when they were undergraduates at Oxford, so it's not very hard to envisage a scenario where one of them succeeds the other in Number 10.

 

[jahenders]

Margaret Thatcher seems an obvious choice. She could have had an affair with Major, Callaghan, Wilson, Heath, or Home.

 

[RyanF]

Roy Jenkins and Tony Crosland had quite a bit of sex when they were undergraduates at Oxford, so it's not very hard to envisage a scenario where one of them succeeds the other in Number 10.

Think this would be the most likely option, and I have to say the most interesting one.

Of course if we ever see PM Stephen Kinnock we could be in the position where the PM is married to the former PM of ANOTHER country.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

It is interesting that Crosland and Jenkins does indeed seem to be the most likely scenario for this.

Major / Currie? Currie is too abrasive to ever be leader really, regardless of anything else.

Abbott / Corbyn? Lol no.

Thatcher / anyone? Out of Character for Thatcher really, and can't think of anyone that makes sense, except Alan Clark in his own deluded fantasies.

Tony / Cherie? Probably always going to be one or the other, but I guess there are situations where it could be made to work.

The Wintertons? Lol no.

 

[RyanF]

For maximum dystopia... Harold Nicolson and John Amery.

 

[V-J]

I don't know how intense Gaitskell's womanising was, but there's probably ATL potential there.

 

[ben0628]

There's a common joke that if Hillary Clinton becomes President (which is looking more likely with each primary, but that's a topic for another discussion), she and Bill Clinton will have become the only two presidents of the United States who have had sex with each other at some point.

Your challenge, should you accept it, is for the equivalent to happen in the United Kingdom. I thought Edwina Currie might've worked at some point given the revelations of her affair with John Major, but her career kind of went nowhere after the salmonella controversy anyway, unless that's butterflied away.

This probably isnt what you were thinking and i would never want this to happen obviously but for the sake of possibilities have William Pitt the elder have an incestuous relationship with his son.

 

[LegionoftheUnitedStates]

"Lady Thatcher, are you trying to seduce me?"

-Tony Blair

 

[Forcon]

"Lady Thatcher, are you trying to seduce me?"

-Tony Blair

Aaaaaand that's a mental image I can never unsee.

 

[rpryor03]

Currie and Major?

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Currie and Major?

I think getting Currie to be leader would be difficult, even if you butterfly away EggGate.

 

[prime-minister]

Macmillan and Bob Boothby, perhaps? Or was that just an alleged thing?

 

[skaven]

"Lady Thatcher, are you trying to seduce me?"

-Tony Blair

I thought myself that there was a frisson of sexual tension between her and Michael Foot.

 

[Jonathan]

Is there any chance of the allegations Edward Heath being gay? If so maybe he sleeps with a curious young conservative

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Is there any chance of the allegations Edward Heath being gay? If so maybe he sleeps with a curious young conservative

IIRC The general theory is that he was gay but was pretty celibate most of his life.

 

[Finbarr the Fair]

Heath a possibility

IIRC The general theory is that he was gay but was pretty celibate most of his life.

That's what I've heard, with an addendum that he may have attended some dubious parties with young males. Unconfirmed, though it leaves open the possibility of a relationship with some young Conservatives.

Portillo springs to mind, possibly falsely, though there must be other plausible candidates amongst people who rose to prominence later on.