Steerpike Steerpike

Heidi Allen mistaken for a Labour MP by national radio station

After Heidi Allen gave a barnstorming maiden speech last week criticising her own party over tax credit cuts, the Tory MP has found herself in the firing line within her own party. Mr S’s colleague Isabel Hardman writes in today’s Times that a number of Tory MPs are even refusing to speak to her over concerns that ‘her careless talk could cost them their majorities’.

Now to make matters worse, it appears that even journalists are struggling to work out which side Allen is on. Word reaches Steerpike that a producer for a national radio station — thought to be one of the BBC’s radio stations — contacted the Labour party to ask if they would put Allen forward to speak on tax credits… at which point they had to break the news that Allen is not actually a Labour MP.

Still, should Allen tire of the cold treatment she is currently receiving from her own party, she could do worse than to venture over to the opposition for some light relief.

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