Do these photos undermine ex PM’s defence?

THESE are the photographs that appear to disprove the notion that the allegations against Sir Edward cannot be true because he ‘never drove a car’ and was always accompanied by police.

Both were taken in October 1975. In the main picture on the right, Heath is standing by the driver’s door of the Rover 2000 he bought after Margaret Thatcher ousted him as Tory leader in February that year. In the picture on the left, he is seen arriving at the Tory Party conference in Blackpool – in the driver’s seat.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that Wiltshire Police has also obtained photographic evidence of him driving.

The issue was first raised by former Cabinet Secretary Lord Armstrong, who worked with Sir Edward in No10. Lord Armstrong said Sir Edward – whom he described as ‘asexual’ – had a 24-hour police guard and driver from the day he became PM in 1970 to his death in 2005, and did not have his own car.

‘When he was at home he had two policemen on the gate, he had the personal protection officer from Scotland Yard in the house, he never drove a car himself, he always had an official driver,’ said Lord Armstrong. ‘It seems highly unlikely he could have escaped all that to do the kind of thing that is described.’

Sir Edward bought the Rover after losing the chauffeur-driven car he was entitled to as Prime Minister, then Opposition leader.

A confidant of the former PM said: ‘He definitely could and did drive, though was a notoriously bad one. When he went to music concerts in Salzburg and hired a car, he was meant to drive it because his British police guards weren’t officially allowed to.

‘But they insisted as they were frightened he was going to crash.’