New Labour MP denies doing 'chicken run' months after winning seat

Londoner’s Diary

Newly minted Labour MP Alistair Strathern has denied doing a “chicken run” to a safer seat before the next election.

Strathern, who in October overturned a large Tory majority in Nadine Dorries’ former seat for Mid Bedfordshire, is not standing for re-election in the constituency he has only represented for a few months.

Instead, he will contest next-door Hitchin, a new seat created by boundary changes, where a Labour victory is thought to be more likely.

Hitchin contains a small part of the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, including the town of Shefford, where Strathern lives.

“This has been a really tough decision for me,” Strathern told The Londoner, “as these new boundaries have completely changed the parliamentary map here in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.”

“It is only right that I stay true to my principles and re-stand to continue to represent the area where I live,” he said.

New boundary changes in the forthcoming election have redrawn the electoral map, leading a number of MPs to dash for selection in newly created seats where their party is expected to perform better. The term “chicken run” has become shorthand for this phenomenon.

“For as long as I’m lucky enough to be the MP for the current Mid Bedfordshire constituency, I’ll continue to champion change for all of our towns and villages both locally and nationally in Parliament,” Strathern told us.

Authors in absentia cause a stir at book awards

Miriam Margolyes (BBC / Southern Pictures / Ela Furdas)

Some hit authors are too cool for the prize circuit, it seems. At the Bestseller Awards in Soho last night, many winners weren’t there to pick up their awards and chaos ensued.

“I’m in Italy, so that’s why I’m not with you. That’s another reason to be jealous of my huge success,” Miriam Margolyes said in her video acceptance speech. Her editor then came up on stage and said Miriam had sent two versions — “they chose the clean one”. Richard Osman was absent when host Shappi Khorsandi presented his prize for selling a million copies of The Bullet that Missed.

Khorsandi said he probably “can’t be bothered” to come, because he’s in his “lovely house in Chiswick” having caviar. Nobel Prize-winner Kazuo Ishiguro wrote a rather mischievous speech which ribbed his editor Angus Cargill, who dutifully read it out on his behalf anyway.

PopCon at the ready…

Liz Truss (PA)

Roll up, roll up, Liz Truss is launching a new Tory faction. Enter the Popular Conservatism group, who are pledging to restore “democratic accountability to Britain and deliver popular conservative policies”. No doubt many will be flocking to Truss for advice on popularity.

In her 49 days in power, Truss became the most unpopular PM ever, with 80 per cent of the British public viewing her unfavourably at the lowest ebb of her premiership. Truss has got the like of Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Simon Clarke on board ahead of PopCon’s launch in two weeks, which will be marked with a Westminster event. Tory factions such as the European Research group and the New Conservatives have been causing trouble for Sunak recently, particularly over Rwanda.

Will PopCon rock the boat even more? Perhaps. The group will likely be banging the drum for tax cuts before the election, and seek to influence the drafting of the manifesto. She’s a fighter, not a quitter.

Port and Policy overturned

Stereotypes about Left-wing university students were shockingly overturned this week by the young Conservative societies at University College, London and King’s College, London.

The groups had organised a get-together of drinking and debate on Thursday called “Port and Policy”. Two propositions were lined up for discussion: “This House Would Sink the Boats” and “This House Would Invade Yemen”. A picture advertising the event showed people in lifejackets in a dinghy.

When Conservative Campaign Headquarters got wind of the event’s theme via The Sun, they were so furious that they issued a statement slapping down the student associations. “This is obviously not acceptable and we will be asking the student groups to remove this and cancel the event,” said a CCHQ spokesperson.

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