Reform Club moves to expel friend of Holocaust denier

A former fashion model who married into aristocracy is facing expulsion from one of Britain's most historic private clubs over accusations of anti-Semitism.

Lady Renouf of Kensington, the former wife of the late New Zealand financier Sir Frank "The Bank" Renouf, has been described as "unfit" to be a member of the Reform Club, in Pall Mall in London.

The Reform was established 160 years ago as a bastion of liberal and progressive thought. Past members have included the writers Henry James, H G Wells, E M Forster and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

But not all literary figures are welcome. Lady Renouf's decision to invite to the club David Irving, the historian who was denounced by a High Court judge in 2000 as a racist, an anti-Semite and a falsifier of history, had already caused outrage among many fellow Reform members.

Lady Renouf, who is in her fifties, has maintained that Irving has a right to freedom of speech. But an article published in The Independent on Sunday this month, highlighting her presence at an American conference of extreme right-wingers, may mean she has finally to bid farewell to the Reform. The article, written by Johann Hari, recounted his meetings with Lady Renouf at the Irvine Marriott Hotel in Orange County, California, where the conference took place last summer. She told Hari: "People act as though Judaism is just another religion like Christianity or Islam. It's not. It's a creed of domination and racial superiority."

She said she was "firm friends" with Irving and had for two and a half months attended every day of the court case where the historian sued the American academic Deborah Lipstadt, after she denounced him as a "Holocaust denier". Irving spectacularly lost the case and was landed with costs of about £2m.

When Lady Renouf said goodbye to Hari in the hotel lobby she told him: "It's so good to see that so many young people are getting involved in our movement and seeing the truth about the Jews."

The Reform Club has a reputation for tolerance. But this was seen as a step too far and signatures were collected for a requisition for expulsion.

Lady Renouf grew up in Australia as Michele Mainwaring and she was crowned Miss Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1968. Her current interests include acting and studying "the psychology of religion". When she met Sir Frank she told him she was "Countess Griaznoff", the ex-wife of a Russian nobleman.

They quickly married, in 1991, when the financier was 72 and she was 44. She stated on her marriage certificate that her father was dead.

But during their six-week honeymoon in Australia, Sir Frank learnt that he did have a father-in-law after all – a New South Wales truck driver called Arthur. Michele and Sir Frank got divorced. But Michele kept her title.

With her looks, her name and her quirky academic interests, Lady Renouf became a prominent figure on London's intellectual party circuit. But her world could unravel next month when the Reform Club's general committee meets to consider her expulsion.