He insisted he was not trying to drive the sex industry underground, and even paid for his own wife to see Paul Raymond’s revue, Penetration
Bryan Cassidy, who has died aged 89, was a Conservative member of the Greater London Council who endeavoured to “clean up” Soho, then for 15 years served in the European Parliament.
At Strasbourg he argued that the Single Market must not be an excuse for the EU to erect trade barriers with the rest of the world; defended Nestle’s takeover of Rowntree; and persuaded fellow MEPs to drop a blanket ban on tobacco advertising, claiming the loss of revenue could put 1,700 magazines in Britain out of business.
Bryan Michael Deece Cassidy was born on February 17 1934, the son of William Cassidy and the former Kathleen Geraghty. From Ratcliff College, Leicestershire, he read law at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
For National Service he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, serving in Malta and Libya and continuing as a reservist with the Honourable Artillery Company.