LONDON, March 10: John Profumo, the former British minister whose liaison with a call girl nearly brought down a government, and who spent more than 40 years redeeming himself with unpaid work among London’s poor, died after suffering a stroke, an official said Friday. He was 91.

Profumo was secretary of state for war — the defence secretary — when he was involved with Christine Keeler in 1963.

At the same time, she was seeing a Soviet naval attache and intelligence agent.

Profumo first denied the affair, but after publication of a letter he wrote her, he resigned June 5, 1963.

Although there proved to be no breach of security, the scandal rattled the government to its foundations, made celebrities of call girls Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, and transfixed newspaper readers around the world.

It also ended Profumo’s political career when he was a very promising 48.—AP