ONE of the chief reasons why Simon Hughes lied about his sexuality was because he had not told his elderly mother that he was gay, according to an associate.
Mr Hughes telephoned his mother, Sylvia, or Paddy, as she is known to her friends, on Wednesday evening to give her warning about the revelations that were to appear in The Sun the next day.
Mother and son are remarkably close. Mrs Hughes was at her son’s adoption meeting as parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey. She was at the count at the 1983 by-election victory and was by his side when he announced that he was running for the leadership in 1999.
An associate of Mr Hughes, who, like his mother, is a devout Christian, said: “Paddy is a lovely lady. Mother and son get on well but he had never talked to her about his sexuality. To be honest, it was one of the reasons that Simon did not come out. He wanted to spare his mother’s feelings.
“He has also always been troubled about his sexuality because of his deep religious convictions. The two issues combined meant he found it easier to evade or even lie rather than admit he had sexual encounters with men.”
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Mrs Hughes, who told a newspaper in Hereford that her son would “make a very good leader”, was fully supportive. “His whole family has rallied round,” the associate added. The MP visits his mother regularly in Hereford, where she was a Samaritan and worked for the local Red Cross. Mr Hughes was a member of the local Liberal Association, although he never fought an election there.