 Since the mid @-@ 1930s , Widmerpool 's political leanings have been generally to the left , ( possibly as a result of his brief association with the radical Gypsy Jones in the late 1920s ) . In 1945 he becomes a Labour Member of Parliament during the postwar Attlee government and eventually receives ( unspecified ) minor ministerial office in the administration . He is also one of the backers of a left @-@ leaning magazine , Fission , through which he hopes to propagate his economic and political views . He is an assiduous promoter of good relations with eastern European countries and is suspected by some of a secret communist allegiance . After losing his parliamentary seat in the 1955 General Election Widmerpool continues to promote east – west friendship and trade and is thought to have become wealthy as a result . Doubts as to his motives remain and rumours connect him with Burgess and Maclean . In 1958 , Widmerpool is appointed a life peer and takes his seat in the House of Lords . His eastern European activities again arouse suspicion , questions are asked in parliament and it seems likely that he will be charged with spying but the investigation is dropped without explanation . His marriage to Pamela is disintegrating ; for years he has tolerated her constant infidelities and she publicly accuses him of voyeurism . After Pamela 's sudden death in 1959 , Widmerpool leaves the country to take up an academic post in California . 
