Profumo affair Party was marked by the scandal, which may have contributed to its defeat by the Labour Party in the 1964 general election. When the Profumo–Keeler affair was first revealed, public interest was heightened by reports that Keeler may have been simultaneously involved with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché, thereby creating a possible security risk. Keeler knew both Profumo and Ivanov through her friendship with Stephen Ward, an osteopath and socialite who had taken her under his wing. The exposure of the affair generated rumours of other scandals, and drew official attention to the activities of Ward, who was
Christine Keeler a couple, but according to her, it was a platonic, non-sexual relationship. In July 1961, Ward introduced Keeler to John Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, at a pool party at Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire mansion owned by Lord Astor. Profumo began a brief affair with Keeler, which ended after he was warned by the security services of the possible dangers of mixing with the Ward circle. Among Ward's other friends, whom Profumo briefly met, was the Russian naval attaché and GRU officer, Yevgeny Ivanov. According to Keeler, she and Ivanov enjoyed a short sexual relationship. After