Tommy Sheridan 'had the sex life of a Premier League footballer'

Tommy Sheridan tried to pretend he was the "squeaky clean Daniel O'Donnell of Scottish politics" but actually had the secret sex life of an English Premier League footballer, a former friend said today. Alan McCombes, once a close ally and colleague, told Sheridan's perjury trial that the former Scottish Socialist party leader had privately admitted to him that he had visited a sex club in Manchester on two occasions. McCombes, the party's press and policy officer, confronted Sheridan about his double life because he was worried about the damage to both Sheridan and the party if it came to light. His then friend pretended to the voters that he was faithfully married to his wife, Gail, his childhood sweetheart. "I wasn't having a moralistic position," McCombes told the high court in Glasgow today. "My concern was that his public presentation was in sharp contrast with his private behaviour – that he had presented himself quite deliberately and consciously as a very squeaky-clean politician who constantly referred to his relationship with Gail, almost as the Daniel O'Donnell of Scottish politics. "I believed his activities were more akin to the lifestyle of an English Premier League footballer than the leader of a political party. I was concerned that if this story was to appear in the media, then it would damage him, and the party would become collateral damage and would be adversely affected." Sheridan, 46, and Gail, also 46, are accused of perjury during Sheridan's libel victory against the News of the World at the court of session in Edinburgh in 2006 and of trying to cover-up his infidelities. They deny all the charges. The then SSP leader and member of the Scottish parliament won £200,000 damages after persuading a jury that the tabloid had wrongly accused him of secretly visiting sex clubs and having affairs. McCombes today became the 15th member of the party's former executive committee to tell the jury that Sheridan had admitted being the subject of a News of the World article alleging an unnamed MSP had "kinky" sex with Anvar Khan, a News of the World columnist. The committee had held an emergency meeting with Sheridan after the Khan story appeared on 31 October 2004. She insisted in court last week that she had several flings with Sheridan and had visited Cupid's sex club in Manchester with him, but admitted she had made up other key allegations in her article. McCombes said Sheridan had been "very, very gung-ho about going to court, to lie in court, to commit perjury in order to win his case" at one meeting to discuss the case in November 2004. At a later "damage-limitation" meeting with Sheridan, his then friend became "contemptuous" and "abusive" about other party members. McCombes was shocked by Sheridan's behaviour and their friendship broke down. "These were people who had given their lives, who had worked their socks off to get Tommy where he was," he said. "People who went back decades, people who supported him through thick and thin and his attitude was contemptuous and he refused to meet them." The trial continues.