Goldsmith

London, Feb. 18: Can a cabinet minister be doing his job properly if he is experiencing all the stress and subterfuge necessary to conduct an extra-marital affair?

This question came up today after Britain’s attorney-general, Lord Goldsmith, 57, the father of four children, admitted he had been involved in an affair which he has now ended.

Newspaper reports identified the object of his passion as Kim Hollis, 49, the daughter of a Sikh father and an English mother and bright enough to become the first Asian woman barrister in the UK to be appointed a Queen’s Counsel.

Asked last week if she wanted to discuss the matter, she told a journalist: “No. I’m afraid I don’t.”

Goldsmith, who was yesterday in San Francisco with his wife, Joy, owned up in a brief statement.

“My wife knows all about this and has done for some time,” he said. “It is all in the past and we are both very happy. This is a private matter and my wife and I have no further comment to make.”

Some people in Britain are indeed taking a grown-up view that so long as a politician’s work is not compromised, his private life is his own.

Tony Blair today backed Goldsmith, one of his closest colleagues, and said the attorney-general was doing a “fantastic job”.

“He is someone we are very lucky to have in government,” the British Prime Minister enthused.

Others are not quite as charitable. There were reports that at the height of the Iraq crisis, Goldsmith would disappear at odd times during the day and could not be contacted.

One source claimed the relationship did seem to have had a negative impact on Goldsmith’s ministerial duties. “He used to disappear off the radar for hours at a time. People just couldn’t get hold of him,” the legal source said.

The source added that Goldsmith had ended the affair after his wife found out about it. She is said to have threatened to divorce him unless he ended the liaison.

Goldsmith has long been mired in controversy over whether he did or didn’t rule the British invasion of Iraq was legal. When his advice was sought as the government’s most senior lawyer, it is said he was uneasy about the justification advanced by the British Prime Minister but later reversed his position under pressure and gave Blair the green light for the attack on Iraq — or so it is claimed.

As for Hollis, she was born in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Friends find her attractive and an extrovert, qualities that must have drawn the attorney-general to her. It is said that at one meeting arranged by Hollis, who has been active in women’s issues and briefs relating to “honour killings”, her star speaker was none other than Goldsmith.

It has also been revealed that her grandfather was a freedom fighter alongside Gandhi, and that one of her aunts, Satwant Singh, has been a Calcutta resident with many friends in the Punjabi community.

She married an Englishman, Andrew Hollis, the director of a medical company. It is unclear whether their divorce was in any way connected with her affair or if the relationship with Goldsmith began after the marriage had ended.

“She was pretty open about it,” according to a lawyer quoted in today’s Sunday Times. “She wasn’t at all discreet. She would park around the corner and collect him. They would then go off for the afternoon.”

She appears to have kept the family home in Fulham, west London, which she was once happy to feature in Asiana, an Asian glossy magazine. She and her former husband have two teenage children, one at university and the other taking GCSEs at school.

Last year, Hollis was nominated in the “Professional of the Year” category at the Asian Women of Achievement awards and was disappointed not to win.

She was called to the Bar in 1979 and soon after began to specialise in cases involving sex crimes and honour killings. She became a QC in 2002.

As vice-chairwoman of the Bar Council’s diversity committee she has been identified with campaigns concerning the perceived discrimination against black and female barristers.

Perhaps her most famous case was prosecuting the man who handled thousands of pounds worth of Victoria Beckham’s designer underwear after it was stolen at an airport. She grilled binman Mark Oliver in the case at Isleworth Crown Court and spoke with “Posh” when she took the stand to give evidence in 2001.

Goldsmith has been married to Joy since 1974 and they have three sons and one daughter. He insisted he had not used his position to advance his former lover’s career.

“Any suggestion of professional advantage being obtained as a result of this is absolute nonsense,” he told the Mail on Sunday.