The election was not a good night for former Home Secretaries. Charles Clarke, a persistent thorn in the side of Gordon Brown, lost his Norwich South seat to the Liberal Democrats’ Simon Wright. Wright secured a narrow majority of 310 votes. Clarke who was defending a notional majority of 3,023, said: “I blame my loss on the fact that we were not able to make our case.”
It was also gratifying to see Jacqui Smith close to tears as she lost her Redditch constituency. Swept in with the Labour landslide of 1997, the Blair Babe enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks. If her political obituary ever comes to be written it will be adult films and second homes that will play a prominent part. It was her claim for her cable television package, and two adult films, that propelled her into the headlines rather than her role as the first female Home Secretary. Her husband apologised, but the damage was done.
Criticised for designating her sister’s house in London as her main home rather than her residence in Redditch, an arrangement for which she claimed more than £116,000 over six years, she was found to have broken the rules on expenses and ordered to apologise to the Commons. She stood down as Home Secretary last June: on election night her humiliation was complete when her majority of 2,716 was turned into one of 5,821 for her Tory opponent Karen Lumley.
Another casualty of the evening was the colourful character and shocking (to say the least) self publicist Lembit Öpik in Montgomeryshire, who finally had that stupid smile wiped off his face. He and ITV weather presenter Siân Lloyd appeared on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on 15 April 2006, winning £64,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Action for Children.
Öpik later become involved with then-24-year-old Gabriela Irimia of pop music double-act The Cheeky Girls after dumping Lloyd. He announced his engagement to her in a popular magazine, after proposing in Rome. They split up in July 2008 after a "difficult period" in the relationship. In 2009, tabloid newspapers reported he was dating model Katie Green. Öpik and Green denied the rumours while appearing on Sky News, clarifying that they are just friends who share an interest in "campaigning against the fashion industry's continued use of too-thin models".
Mr Öpik, who will also be remembered for his fear that a giant asteroid will hit the Earth and destroy mankind, and his colourful love life, was destroyed not by a large lump of extra-planetary rock, but by Glyn Davies, who turned a Liberal Democrat majority of 7,048 into a Tory one of 1,184. I don’t think the Lib Dems will miss him much somehow.
But as the results showed, the reassuring proverb that pride comes before a fall does not apply only to MPs.
Esther Rantzen believed that by sheer force of celebrity she had a chance to win over the voters of Luton South and show that a presenter who made her name on a programme starring talking dogs was an ideal choice to succeed Margaret Moran, the MP who claimed £22,500 for a home 100 miles from her constituency. The voters thought otherwise: Ms Rantzen came fourth, garnering only 1,872 votes. Serves her right, seems to be the fate of self publicists and hypocrites in this election.
As to hypocrites there is surely none worse than Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, there was no doubt. He was brought down by scandal. The DUP leader lost his East Belfast seat to the Alliance Party in one of the biggest upsets of the night.
His defeat came in the wake of damaging revelations about himself and his wife Iris, nicknamed the Swish Family Robinson after reports that they claimed more than £500,000 a year in salary and expenses. Mr Robinson was forced temporarily to stand down as First Minister in January to address claims that he knew that his wife had failed to declare her role in obtaining £50,000 for her teenage lover’s business but did not report her to the authorities. The DUP leader took office again after claiming that an independent legal adviser cleared him of wrongdoing.
It was also gratifying to see Jacqui Smith close to tears as she lost her Redditch constituency. Swept in with the Labour landslide of 1997, the Blair Babe enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks. If her political obituary ever comes to be written it will be adult films and second homes that will play a prominent part. It was her claim for her cable television package, and two adult films, that propelled her into the headlines rather than her role as the first female Home Secretary. Her husband apologised, but the damage was done.
Criticised for designating her sister’s house in London as her main home rather than her residence in Redditch, an arrangement for which she claimed more than £116,000 over six years, she was found to have broken the rules on expenses and ordered to apologise to the Commons. She stood down as Home Secretary last June: on election night her humiliation was complete when her majority of 2,716 was turned into one of 5,821 for her Tory opponent Karen Lumley.
Another casualty of the evening was the colourful character and shocking (to say the least) self publicist Lembit Öpik in Montgomeryshire, who finally had that stupid smile wiped off his face. He and ITV weather presenter Siân Lloyd appeared on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on 15 April 2006, winning £64,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Action for Children.
Öpik later become involved with then-24-year-old Gabriela Irimia of pop music double-act The Cheeky Girls after dumping Lloyd. He announced his engagement to her in a popular magazine, after proposing in Rome. They split up in July 2008 after a "difficult period" in the relationship. In 2009, tabloid newspapers reported he was dating model Katie Green. Öpik and Green denied the rumours while appearing on Sky News, clarifying that they are just friends who share an interest in "campaigning against the fashion industry's continued use of too-thin models".
Mr Öpik, who will also be remembered for his fear that a giant asteroid will hit the Earth and destroy mankind, and his colourful love life, was destroyed not by a large lump of extra-planetary rock, but by Glyn Davies, who turned a Liberal Democrat majority of 7,048 into a Tory one of 1,184. I don’t think the Lib Dems will miss him much somehow.
But as the results showed, the reassuring proverb that pride comes before a fall does not apply only to MPs.
Esther Rantzen believed that by sheer force of celebrity she had a chance to win over the voters of Luton South and show that a presenter who made her name on a programme starring talking dogs was an ideal choice to succeed Margaret Moran, the MP who claimed £22,500 for a home 100 miles from her constituency. The voters thought otherwise: Ms Rantzen came fourth, garnering only 1,872 votes. Serves her right, seems to be the fate of self publicists and hypocrites in this election.
As to hypocrites there is surely none worse than Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, there was no doubt. He was brought down by scandal. The DUP leader lost his East Belfast seat to the Alliance Party in one of the biggest upsets of the night.
His defeat came in the wake of damaging revelations about himself and his wife Iris, nicknamed the Swish Family Robinson after reports that they claimed more than £500,000 a year in salary and expenses. Mr Robinson was forced temporarily to stand down as First Minister in January to address claims that he knew that his wife had failed to declare her role in obtaining £50,000 for her teenage lover’s business but did not report her to the authorities. The DUP leader took office again after claiming that an independent legal adviser cleared him of wrongdoing.
