Westminster diary

CHARLES KEY was Labour MP for Poplar when I was first elected to Parliament in 1962. A hero of the blitz, Key used to shake his finger at us young MPs, saying: “Beware of the Montgomery!” Why? Sixty years ago an American second world war liberty ship, the USS Richard Montgomery, sank in the Thames estuary a couple of kilometres from the town of Sheerness in Kent with a cargo of 13,700 bombs. There it has remained, and fears are growing that it will explode in the next 10 to 20 years, with disastrous effects (New Scientist, 22…