The daughter of disgraced Tory MP Jonathan Aitken, who was famously jailed for perjury, is in Cyprus celebrating her new found pop-fame. )
THE Independent newspaper once described Jonathan Aitken as “easily one of the most debonair and urbane figures at Westminster and something of a toff”, so news of his daughter’s foray into the world of explicit rap music has recently raised some eyebrows.
“My father supports me in what I choose to do and he does not find the lyrics offensive or explicit,” says Victoria Aitken, who has spent the past week in Cyprus celebrating the release of her new single “I’ll Be Your Bitch”.
Knowing she had spent the past few years – homing her talents in America, I was half expecting to interview a girl with a psuedo-US accent, but it immediately became apparent that the 28-year-old hardly talks like ‘Jenny from da block’. Her well-spoken clipped tones sound more like “Lucy from Chelsea”.
It’s little surprise that her father is enthusiastic about her ambitions to crack the pop music world, but he admits the latest record title is slightly too rich for him.
“I respect her artistic freedom even if the latest lyric ‘I’ll be your Bitch’ is not my flavour of the month! I preferred her earlier song ‘Vicky on the Yacht’,” he told the Sunday Mail.
She is sweet, polite and smart – and somehow I can’t imagine her trawling through the murky world of rap or sitting in a club in Ayia Napa swigging cheap cocktails with a posse of hip hoppers in gold chains.
Despite raunchy images of stocking clad women on her record cover, Victoria, comes across more as one of those girls in their embroidered leather cowboy boots and cute little designer bags, so to hear her wailing “I’ll be your bitch” is frankly quite unnerving – but she is passionate about music, that much is obvious.
“I like singing and writing songs. I hope I can still keep doing that and getting paid for a long time!” She cites her main influences as Alex Metric, Ace of Base, Blondie, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Britney Spears, Paul Oakenfold and Vandalism,” she says.
In the late 1990s, Victoria was catapulted into the news when she became the centre of a British political scandal when her father, a former minister of defence procurement, was sent to jail.
Victoria gave false testimony on his behalf, but was luckily spared jail. From then on, her father – who has suffered the sobriquet “disgraced former cabinet minister” has returned to journalism and writing.
“Well, it was hard at times, but hey what ever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” he said. “People still ask about it, I wouldn’t say daily, perhaps weekly.”
Aitken spent 18-months at HMP Belmarsh, whose status has risen since the arrival of celebrity inmates including train robber Ronnie Biggs and Tory peer Jeffrey Archer.
Now, father and daughter are busily engaging in their own careers, but both tell of their love for Cyprus, “I like it because of the great clubs in Ayia Napa. I also like Paphos – for its natural beauty. The weather of course is amazing,” says Victoria.
Jonathan also loves the island, but Ayia Napa is probably the last place you’ll find him.
“I have been visiting Cyprus for many years, usually on holiday breaks when I was working in the Middle East. Also I did make three or four visits to the British base when I was a Defence Minister in the early 1990s,” he said. “Although I have no family connections with the island I do have many friends including some old British political friends such as Sir Edward DuCann and Lady Boothroyd who have homes on the island.”
