Maxwell Frank Clifford (6 April 1943 – 10 December 2017) was an English publicist who was particularly associated with promoting "kiss and tell" stories in tabloid newspapers.

[6]: 16–17  The family survived their father's regular bouts of unemployment, gambling, and alcoholism with the help and support of their grandmother and Clifford's sister, who was employed as a PA to the London Vice-President of Morgan Guarantee Trust Bank.

When the publication moved premises, Clifford decided to take redundancy, buying his first house and finding work with the South London Press to train as a journalist.

As the youngest and the only trained journalist in a team of four, Clifford claimed he was given the job of promoting the then relatively unknown Beatles,[11] including during their first tour of the United States.

[6][page needed] Among the artists they represented were Paul and Barry Ryan, who introduced Clifford to their stepfather, impresario Harold Davidson, who handled the UK affairs of Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.

Clifford asked the madame to reveal details of her girls and clients, and found that one prostitute, Pamella Bordes, was simultaneously dating Andrew Neil (then editor of The Sunday Times), Donald Trelford (then editor of The Observer), Conservative minister for sport Colin Moynihan, and billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.

[12][13][14] Clifford rang News of the World editor Patsy Chapman and drip-fed her the story of Bordes through the investigative reporter she was using on the madam.

Clifford claimed Bordes was never his client, and that he earned his fee for "writing" the story, which ultimately served the purpose of saving the madame from any adverse publicity or court case.

[16] Clifford later represented various clients, including former Liverpool left-wing politician Derek Hatton, for whom Clifford created an affair to change his image;[6][page needed] O. J. Simpson,[15] for which reason Clifford claimed to have received death threats[6][page needed]; Gillian McKeith, whose adverts he believed harmed her image;[17] Rebecca Loos, when she negotiated with the press about her alleged affair with England football captain David Beckham;[6][page needed] and Jade Goody, during the reality star's cervical cancer and death.

[22] In 2005, Clifford paid damages to settle defamation proceedings brought by Neil and Christine Hamilton after he represented Nadine Milroy-Sloane, who was later found to have falsely accused the pair of sexual assault.

[28] Clifford stated that what motivated him was much more than just money; he said he could not stand hypocrisy in public life, reserved a particular disgust for lying politicians, and watched with growing anger what he thought happened to the National Health Service over the past 20 years.

[6] For this reason, and because of his working-class background, Clifford was a traditional Labour supporter who worked to bring down the government of John Major because he felt that the NHS was being mismanaged.

[6][page needed] In light of Clifford's view of the deteriorating state of the NHS – having obtained treatment for his daughter, who had been diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis[6][page needed] – and moral differences with members of the John Major government, Clifford worked to expose stories to help the Labour Party to power.

Although not instrumental in exposing David Mellor's affair with Antonia de Sancha, Clifford's battle in representing de Sancha against the contrived post-spin story of the "family man Mellor" handled by counter PR Timothy Bell ultimately derailed Major's 'Back to Basics' agenda.

[6][page needed] Later that week, Clifford was accused of arranging a distraction from the assault made by his friend Rebekah Wade on her then husband, EastEnders actor Ross Kemp, via the "coincidence" of the other "Mitchell brother", Steve McFadden being in a similar incident with an ex-partner.

[6] On 26 April 2006, Clifford represented John Prescott's diary secretary Tracey Temple, in selling her story for "an awful lot more" than £100,000 to the Mail on Sunday.

[6][page needed] Although he usually backed Labour, Clifford supported, and did some publicity work for, UKIP during the 2004 European election campaign.

[32] Clifford said at the time that "The UK Independence Party and myself are in complete agreement that the British people should be the masters of their own destiny through our parliament at Westminster, not subservient to Brussels.

[33] Also, following his 2014 conviction for indecent assault, Shooting Star CHASE and Woking and Sam Beare Hospices announced that Clifford was no longer a patron for either charity.

[6][page needed] Part of the evidence for his trial of various indecent assaults revolved around the size of his penis, with victims describing it as both a micropenis, and enormous.

A doctor measured Clifford's penis at five and a quarter inches long when flaccid, and this fact was used in an attempt to discredit the victims' evidence as unreliable.

[62] In March 2010, the News of the World settled out of court after Clifford sought legal action against it for intercepting his voicemail.

After a lunch with editor Rebekah Brooks, the paper agreed to pay Clifford's legal fees and an undisclosed "personal payment" not described as damages.

[65] On 4 April 2010, he married his former PA, Jo Westwood; wedding guests included Des O'Connor, Bobby Davro, and Theo Paphitis.