John Major's hopes that the furore over his affair with Edwina Currie would die down have been dashed.

His former lover has hit back at the ex-prime minister's description of their relationship as the event in his life of which he is "most ashamed".

Speaking from France, Currie tells today's Times: "He was not very ashamed of it at the time, I can tell you. I think I am slightly indignant about that remark."

Adding to his embarrasment, the media feeding frenzy included claims he had been "over familiar" with two other former Tory MPs.

According to the paper: "Baroness Nicholson was bombarded with compliments about her perfume before storming out of his office in disgust. And Theresa Gorman was stunned when a meeting about the Maastricht Treaty ended with him taking her hand and stroking it tenderly."

Much of the media considers that the course of political history would have been very different if the affair had not remained a secret for 15 years.

Had Major's past been uncovered it is likely he would have had to resign.

The Sun's political editor considers the possibility that a Labour Party led by Neil Kinnock could have won the 1992 election.

The ERM debacle would have made Labour unelectable instead of the Tories, he claims.

The Sun also carries some of the more lurid details of the pair's liason and the admittance by Currie that Major was not her first affair.

Today's Telegraph questions the judgement of both Major and Currie.

"It is not our purpose here to make moral judgments, still less to question Mr Major's taste in women ... but it is fair to say that Mr Major's choice of Mrs Currie as a lover showed appalling political judgment.

"She was a woman who never made any secret of her ambition, her love of money or her lust for publicity. Five minutes in her company should have been enough to tell Mr Major that this woman spelt trouble."

The Guardian believes: "For years, Mr Major always laboured under a legendarily grey public image. Now, though, Mr Major is revealed as a flesh and blood chancer - indeed almost in the Bill Clinton class."

The Independent claims that Currie told Tony Newton, now Lord Newton, about the affair when he was his boss as health minister during the 1980s.

The Daily Mail claims that the revelation has left John Major fearing he will be unable to become a Knight of the Garter, the highest honour the Queen can bestow.

All other surviving former prime ministers have received the honour and, according to the Mail, Major is "desperate" to join this select group.

The Mirror leads with the blunt assesment of Major's sister: "At least it wasn't Ann Widdecombe."

Revelations of the affair have led to threats of legal action.

Lawyers for the publishers and deceased editor of the now-defunct satire magazine Scallywag, sued by Major and the caterer Clare Latimer for libel, are considering their legal position.

Major and Latimer settled a libel action against the magazine which had claimed they had been having an affair while he was chancellor.

Solicitor David Price told PA News that the new revelations made by Edwina Currie of a four-year affair before Major joined the Thatcher cabinet undermined the basis of his claim.

"John Major's claim against my clients, their printers and distributors was on the basis that it was a serious attack on his reputation to accuse him of adultery," he said.

"It's apparent from what has become public in the last day that this was a false premise. The publishing company and the estate of the editor are considering whether to commence legal proceedings to recover losses and expenses caused by John Major's original defamation claim."Latimer also broke her silence over the row - accusing Major of using her as a "decoy".

In a scathing interview, Latimer said she believed Major had allowed the rumour to continue in order to deflect attention away from his affair.

She said the former prime minister used the libel action to halt any further media prying.

"I would possibly suggest that John Major didn't try to end it because he knew that his name would be cleared, which gave him free rein towards being prime minister," she said.

"He has changed my life for ever. He ruined my life for five years. To him it was a one-day wonder. I think I have been used as a decoy and extremely unfairly."