The role of publicist Max Clifford as a mouthpiece for the PR industry is often debated in relation to the reputation of the industry.

During the CIPR TV presidential debate yesterday Rob Brown said that he’d tried hard during his career to bait a legal suit from Clifford. He said that he was surprised that Clifford didn’t come after him when he revealed a professional indiscretion in his book that Clifford had shared privately with him over lunch.

I headed to the bookshelf and picked off my copy of Brown’s book Public Relations and the Social Web to dig out the story.

“Many years ago I found myself sitting next to the celebrated British publicist Max Clifford at an industry lunch in Manchester at which he was the guest speaker. He had been responsible for bringing about the public disgrace of the British government minister David Mellor.

“Max Clifford revealed that David Mellor was having an affair with a little known actress called Antonia de Sancha. Clifford had touted the story that Mellor, a renowned Chelsea football fan, had asked the actress to make love to him whilst he was dressed in his Chelsea football shirt.

“The story made the front page of The Sun newspaper. During lunch, I took the opportunity to ask Mr Clifford whether the story had in fact been true. He laughed and admitted it was a total fabrication.”

Brown said that if he became President of the CIPR he’d front a spokesperson for every PR story that led a mainstream news agenda.