That’s Life, But Not As We Know It

The electorate in Luton South may, this morning, be wondering what they have done to deserve not one, but two, less than A-List slebs fetching up on their manor ready to try and propel themselves into the Commons. And there is a bizarre back story involving an MP who is not yet out of the woods on her expense claims.

The constituency is presently represented by Labour’s Margaret Moran, who has herself been mired in expense problems and is therefore standing down at the General Election. Unwisely coming in to supposedly clean up politics is former That’s Life presenter Esther Rantzen. So far, so marginally important. But now, another radio and TV presenter, Stephen Rhodes (real name Tommy Keenan) has thrown his mike in the ring.

Which still is unlikely to set pulses racing, that is, until the Maily Telegraph, which has not exactly been in the shrinking violet class on parliamentary expenses, unearthed a close relationship between Rhodes and – yes, it’s her again – Mid Bedfordshire Tory MP Nadine Dorries. The Telegraph and Ms Dorries have previous, after the MP said what she thought about the paper’s motivation on expenses, and lawyers for the Telegraph’s owners had her blog taken down.

Moreover, the Maily Telegraph has now asserted that Rhodes attempted to stop their investigations into Dorries’ expenses. And as if that isn’t quite enough to be going on with, Nadine Dorries has recently agreed to go on Have I Got News For You in the near future. On the wisdom or otherwise of that, I have only one word of advice.

Don’t.