The Londoner: Tooting MP tunes up for deputy gig

Tooting MP keen on deputy role | Roland's the rat for People's Vote | De Niro's West End movie date | SNP eyes Skinner's seat | 
Barcroft Media via Getty Images
19 December 2019

The Labour MP for Tooting, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, last night confirmed her interest in standing as deputy leader of the party. “It’s a very serious decision to take,” said Allin-Khan when asked if she would stand. “But if I could play some part in rebuilding the party that I love… well then, yes.”

Dr Allin-Khan, who was re-elected on December 12 with a vote share of 52.7 per cent, jokingly touted her credentials as an NHS doctor. “I am a trauma and A&E doctor, so I am the woman to pick apart the bleeding body and put it back together again.”

The Tooting MP, who has already had to face three elections in three years, was stark in her analysis of Labour’s defeat. “We moved very hard-Left and that did us a disservice in the last election. We had a manifesto which was really good in parts, but nobody believed it was deliverable”, she told the live recording of Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast recorded with an audience at the Bloomsbury Theatre. “The leadership came up [on the doorstep]”, she admitted. “People said that they didn’t have faith in the leadership.”

Dr Allin-Khan left the door open for Keir Starmer to become party leader, twice resisting calls to say Jeremy Corbyn’s successor should be female: “It’s got to be the right leader”, she said. Referring to families living in temporary accommodation, she said: “I want the 3,000 children in Wandsworth that are sleeping homeless on Christmas Day not to be sleeping homeless… I don’t care whether it’s a man or a woman that delivers that.”

Dr Allin-Khan’s campaign hit the headlines when she accused Boris Johnson of filching her Love Actually spoof video. “It was a pretty low-quality production”, she admitted of her own version. “We had someone from my team sitting in the bush collecting the cards.” The MP, whose mother was a Polish pop singer, ended the night by singing a version of Merry Christmas Everyone with house band MP4. If she can deputise as well as she can sing, The Londoner fancies her chances…

Roland's the rat for People's Vote

People’s Vote campaigners said goodbye last night. The team, which had been lavishly bankrolled by PR chief Roland Rudd until they fell out spectacularly and he fired them, had farewell drinks in a dingy basement bar near Camden. James McGrory, who ran the campaign, spoke passionately, saying they put up a noble fight. “You can’t always win in politics. If you could, you’d be the Tories, right?” A staffer told us: “We created a special movement, from all political parties united in our hatred of Roland Rudd.” Peace out.

Ashworth's PR disaster

Greig Baker, who leaked a recording of his then friend Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth airing worries about Jeremy Corbyn, has explained why he betrayed him. Baker justifies himself by saying: “If you have a security concern, I think the right thing to do is tell people.” Baker runs a public-affairs consultancy. Good luck with whole client trust thing, Greig.

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An immersive production of The Wolf of Wall Street, based on the film about the life of trader Jordan Belfort, is to close in January after a run of just six weeks. Audiences at the London show had been invited to “become a Master of the Universe” with Belfort or “sign up to help the FBI”. Well, if those are the choices...

De Niro's West End movie date

IRISHMAN: Robert De Niro
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Net

Robert De Niro was in town last night as London showed little sign of letting up before Christmas. The Irishman star was at The Cinema in Selfridges for a screening of his Oscar-fancied Netflix film. In Belgravia, the Gentleman’s Journal held its own Christmas bash — or, as they called it, VIP Festive Drinks, where actor Mark Ebulué and dancer Eric Underwood soaked up the festive vibes. Magician Archie Manners wasn’t quite on the same page. His Christmas plans involve “doing whatever I can to spend as little time as possible with my relatives”. Distant cousins Lady Violet and Eliza Manners were nearby (Manners assured us earlier this month, he’s very fond of the pair). At Omeara in London Bridge, model Neelam Gill was at Bumble’s Christmas party. In Covent Garden, meanwhile, Noel Fielding plumped for a cosy look while volunteering with radio host Lliana Bird at the Choose Love shop for Help Refugees.

SW1A

Since Dennis Skinner lost Bolsover last week, the battle is on for his other seat. In 2015, Skinner fought off the SNP who tried to claim his perch, the opposition backbench seat closest to the Prime Minister, as their own. But now John Nicolson MP tells us: “With so many extra SNP MPs, the party will clearly need extra seats. And as the third party leader it makes sense for Ian Blackford to sit at the front.”

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Tony Blair tells us he didn’t stay up on election night. “Even when I was Prime Minister, Philip Gould would tell me what was going to happen, then I would get a decent night’s sleep.” Winning is clearly more relaxing.

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Richard Burgon’s campaign to be Labour deputy leader is cranking up. Not only is there a Twitter campaign, #BackBurgon — which has considerable Tory support — his fans have a proper nickname — Burganistas. The Londoner suggests young supporters could be called sliders.

The force is with you, Yomi

Yomi Adegoke, co-author of Slay in Your Lane, reflects on well-to-do actress Daisy Ridley “not seeing the difference” between herself and fellow Star Wars actor John Boyega in a recent newspaper interview. “It’s very problematic, but I don’t think it’s intentionally so,” Adegoke says. “Daisy’s probably looking at John Boyega and going, ‘He’s a man so he’s more privileged’ despite the fact that he grew up in Peckham, despite the fact that he is working class, is black.” She adds on the Fortunately podcast: “I kind of get the mentality, but it’s something that needs to be completely deconstructed.”

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