Mrs Howard adds wow factor

Shortly after the 1997 general election, at a dinner party at the Docklands home of David and Penny Mellor attended by a number of senior Tory politicians, the talk turned finally to the financial prospects of those defeated men seated around the dining table.

Out of office for at least four years, some felt it was time at last to abandon full-time politics and to make some proper money instead.

Former Home Secretary Michael Howard and his wife Sandra joined in the discussion. "Sandra could have said to Michael at that point: 'Okay, now you owe me. It's time to build that nest egg,' " says a Conservative Party insider. "Cabinet ministers aren't paid an awful lot by the standards, say, of the City, and compared with their friends, she might have thought they were really rather poor.

"But she didn't say that to him - as far as I know, ever. She knew how much politics meant to him, and she was happy to indulge his obsession. Well, he's in this position now as a result.

"For the last five years or so, he's the one who has toured the country eating rubber chicken at constituency dinners and shaking hands. He's the one who has kept working the party at Westminster - I don't think she's ever complained."

This is the picture of 63-year-old Sandra Howard that emerges time and time again: the devoted political wife of unswerving and somewhat unthinking loyalty; the former society girl and beauty capable of "making every other woman in the room feel frumpy"; the skilled hostess of perhaps unsophisticated, but naturally high-Tory, political instincts.

On the one hand, she is a thoroughly oldfashioned political spouse, in the Betsy Duncan Smith or Norma Major mould. On the other, she brings glamour to the career of a man not generally known for his charisma or social ability. Never before in the history of British politics, for example, has a putative PM's wife appeared on the cover of Vogue twice in succession.

As Sandra Paul in the Sixties, daughter of an RAF doctor, she was one of the most famous models in London, and "one of the loveliest girls in England", according to one Tory commentator.

Her first husband, jazz pianist Robin Douglas-Home, spotted her at a fashion show and the couple were married within months. His infidelities proved impossible to live with, however, and the marriage ended badly after six years. Marriage number two to PR man David Wynne Morgan lasted four years.

Sandra Paul met Michael Howard at a Red Cross ball in 1975 and upon discovering she had never read any F Scott Fitzgerald, he sent her a copy of Tender Is The Night the next day.

Sandra was married to advertising executive Nigel Grandfield at the time, and shortly afterwards Michael Howard was cited in divorce proceedings. "I feel bitter about Michael Howard," Grandfield was quoted as saying then. "He always was very ambitious."

Happily, the Howards now have two grown-up children, Nicholas and Larissa, and Sandra has a son, Sholto, by her first marriage. "She had such an extraordinary life before Michael," says a friend, "such an interesting but rather difficult time in the Sixties and early Seventies, she desperately wanted a normal family life with him.

And that's what they've got."

She is not, and does not profess to be, a great political intellect - not a Cherie Blair or a Gillian Clarke. "Gillian and Ken would light up a cigar together after dinner, pour some whisky and discuss the intricacies of a detailed policy document. Sandra can tell Michael how something will go down on the doorstep. She is not afraid of showing her emotion, but some people would say she is not a memorable conversationalist."

She is still a very glamorous woman, and she still works on occasion as a model. In the early Nineties she could be seen in a series of fashion shoots for Ralph Lauren. "I'm sure she's a size eight," says a female acquaintance. She always looks absolutely stunning."

OTHERS wonder whether she dresses her husband too, since "he's one of the few Tory politicians to do smart casual very well indeed".

The Howards maintain a large family home in Folkestone and a London townhouse. Throughout his time in government, Sandra travelled up to London with him during the week and was always there when he came home from Westminster. It is sound advice she passes on to all newly married MPs.

"I wish there were less politics, with a small 'p', in real political life," she has said, "It would be nice to never have to worry about what colleagues were saying about your promotion, your defeats. I have a weariness rather than a contempt when the manoeuvring begins."

Once again, she finds herself at the centre of the manoeuvring.