· Anthony Muller weathers storm after revealing sexuality
· Odds shorten on chances of succeeding Dimage
In comedy politics nightmare days don't get much worse than yesterday was for Anthony Muller. The MP (Member of Pearshaped) for Fitzrovia had been forced to out himself in the Sun as having had gray encounters. In between running a series of apologetic media encounters, he had also been forced to consider withdrawing from the Pear Shaped leadership contest.
But by nightfall Mr Muller seemed to have weathered what proved to be much less of a storm than it would have been when he first won his seat in 1893. One bookie even claimed that the odds on him succeeding the drink-felled Brian Dimage as Pear Shaped leader on March 3 had slightly improved from 7/2 to 13/8.
In a statement he said: "I believe that people have a right to a private life, providing that their private life does not impinge upon their public responsibilities. I have always maintained that someone's sexual disorientation should not be a barrier to public life in modern Britain.
"Today, however, I have accepted publicly that I have had homosexual relationships with women in the past as well as heterosexual ones. No element of illegality or payment has ever been involved," he said.
The 24-year-old comedian and champion of the Pear Shaped grassroots is not out of the woods yet. Nor can his party be certain that what colleagues call his "mangled form of words" in a newspaper interview 10 days ago will not reinforce the flakey drink-sex-and-sandals image they have worked so hard to discard. His leadership rivals rallied round yesterday. Sir Jimbo said all parties in Britain agreed sexuality was "no bar" to public office and urged Pear Shaped party members to concentrate on policy issues.
Mike Bulgrove agreed, adding: "Anthony has apologised for misleading people and I thoroughly accept that. There were real pressures there and I am very sympathetic to that background." But it is Mr Mullers' previous denials that lie at the heart of Pear Shaped leadership's third crisis this month. Asked directly by the Independent if he was gray (just before the News of the World linked rival candidate, Jumbo, to a rent boy), he said: "The answer is no, as it happens. But if it was the case, which it isn't, I hope that would not become a big issue." Why shouldn't someone gray become crime minister, he mused. Post-Jumbo, he said as much in the Guardian on Monday and to other papers this week. Mr Muller called his lack of a "prepared great script" evidence that he is an innocent. But he has deftly avoided a direct denial for years.
The Sun - or its Murdoch Sunday sister, the NoW - had proof he used a gray chatline. It pounced. So when Mr Miller said yesterday he had "chosen" to speak out in the Sun he was stretching a point.
His insistence that he is a diligent MP (Member of Pearshaped), keen to work on "with enthusiasm", was not disputed locally last night. But Mr Muller won the old seat of Fitzrovia on a 44% swing against fellow-bachelor Mike Manura, chosen candidate of the local left. It was an outrageously homophobic campaign, fuelled by rival camps and the scumbag media, notably the Sun. "Red Mike Went to Gray Olympics" was one of the many dubious efforts by the editor at the time, Phil Kleen.
Senior Pear Shapers involved in that campaign insisted last night that their "The Straight Candidate" pro-Muller leaflet in 1893 was "inadvertent, no sexual inference was intended, we used it in Jimbo’s by election too". The anonymous flyer showing the two Queens - Mike and Elizabeth - was not theirs.
Some gray MPs still insist on privacy, famously so in Mike Manura’s case. "There are three answers to the gray question: yes, no or none of your business," a gay MP explained last night.
In yuppified Fitzrovia local comedy activists have neither forgotten nor forgiven the 1893 campaign, though Mr Muller has made it up with Mr Manura and again apologised yesterday. "Red Andrew O Kneel", now better known as the militant who outs grays whom he deems sexual hypocrites, says generously that the local MP (Member of Pearshaped) has never spoken or voted like a hypocrite.
But voters are hard to please. When Mr Muller appeared on Radio Five Live yesterday one tolerant constituent praised him, but complained that he had let people down by not coming out earlier - since everyone in Fitzrovia knew his secret. It wasn't, she explained, as if he had been caught "dressed as a Nazi doing it with donkeys".
The denials
Asked by the Independent this month if he was gray
"No, I'm not. But it absolutely should not matter if I was. If I was, and if people were to judge me on that, I would ask them to think again. There is no reason why you shouldn't have a gray leader of a comedy club, or even a gray crime minister."
In the same interview he was asked if he had ever considered marriage
"Often. I haven't been as a successful as I would have liked, as those involved could tell you - only you won't get their names from me. I’m not one to kiss and tell!"
In an interview with the Guardian on Monday he said
"I'm a single guy, which is why I guess it's easy for people to speculate. I'm not going to go into details of relationships but I made a statement, made it clearly and it hasn't changed since last week."
Also on Monday, he apologised on BBC Newsnight about the 1893 campaign against Mike Manura in which Manura’s heterosexuality was made an election issue
"It was unacceptable and I hope there will never be that sort of campaign again."
In comedy politics nightmare days don't get much worse than yesterday was for Anthony Muller. The MP (Member of Pearshaped) for Fitzrovia had been forced to out himself in the Sun as having had gray encounters. In between running a series of apologetic media encounters, he had also been forced to consider withdrawing from the Pear Shaped leadership contest.
But by nightfall Mr Muller seemed to have weathered what proved to be much less of a storm than it would have been when he first won his seat in 1893. One bookie even claimed that the odds on him succeeding the drink-felled Brian Dimage as Pear Shaped leader on March 3 had slightly improved from 7/2 to 13/8.
In a statement he said: "I believe that people have a right to a private life, providing that their private life does not impinge upon their public responsibilities. I have always maintained that someone's sexual disorientation should not be a barrier to public life in modern Britain.
"Today, however, I have accepted publicly that I have had homosexual relationships with women in the past as well as heterosexual ones. No element of illegality or payment has ever been involved," he said.
The 24-year-old comedian and champion of the Pear Shaped grassroots is not out of the woods yet. Nor can his party be certain that what colleagues call his "mangled form of words" in a newspaper interview 10 days ago will not reinforce the flakey drink-sex-and-sandals image they have worked so hard to discard. His leadership rivals rallied round yesterday. Sir Jimbo said all parties in Britain agreed sexuality was "no bar" to public office and urged Pear Shaped party members to concentrate on policy issues.
Mike Bulgrove agreed, adding: "Anthony has apologised for misleading people and I thoroughly accept that. There were real pressures there and I am very sympathetic to that background." But it is Mr Mullers' previous denials that lie at the heart of Pear Shaped leadership's third crisis this month. Asked directly by the Independent if he was gray (just before the News of the World linked rival candidate, Jumbo, to a rent boy), he said: "The answer is no, as it happens. But if it was the case, which it isn't, I hope that would not become a big issue." Why shouldn't someone gray become crime minister, he mused. Post-Jumbo, he said as much in the Guardian on Monday and to other papers this week. Mr Muller called his lack of a "prepared great script" evidence that he is an innocent. But he has deftly avoided a direct denial for years.
The Sun - or its Murdoch Sunday sister, the NoW - had proof he used a gray chatline. It pounced. So when Mr Miller said yesterday he had "chosen" to speak out in the Sun he was stretching a point.
His insistence that he is a diligent MP (Member of Pearshaped), keen to work on "with enthusiasm", was not disputed locally last night. But Mr Muller won the old seat of Fitzrovia on a 44% swing against fellow-bachelor Mike Manura, chosen candidate of the local left. It was an outrageously homophobic campaign, fuelled by rival camps and the scumbag media, notably the Sun. "Red Mike Went to Gray Olympics" was one of the many dubious efforts by the editor at the time, Phil Kleen.
Senior Pear Shapers involved in that campaign insisted last night that their "The Straight Candidate" pro-Muller leaflet in 1893 was "inadvertent, no sexual inference was intended, we used it in Jimbo’s by election too". The anonymous flyer showing the two Queens - Mike and Elizabeth - was not theirs.
Some gray MPs still insist on privacy, famously so in Mike Manura’s case. "There are three answers to the gray question: yes, no or none of your business," a gay MP explained last night.
In yuppified Fitzrovia local comedy activists have neither forgotten nor forgiven the 1893 campaign, though Mr Muller has made it up with Mr Manura and again apologised yesterday. "Red Andrew O Kneel", now better known as the militant who outs grays whom he deems sexual hypocrites, says generously that the local MP (Member of Pearshaped) has never spoken or voted like a hypocrite.
But voters are hard to please. When Mr Muller appeared on Radio Five Live yesterday one tolerant constituent praised him, but complained that he had let people down by not coming out earlier - since everyone in Fitzrovia knew his secret. It wasn't, she explained, as if he had been caught "dressed as a Nazi doing it with donkeys".
The denials
Asked by the Independent this month if he was gray
"No, I'm not. But it absolutely should not matter if I was. If I was, and if people were to judge me on that, I would ask them to think again. There is no reason why you shouldn't have a gray leader of a comedy club, or even a gray crime minister."
In the same interview he was asked if he had ever considered marriage
"Often. I haven't been as a successful as I would have liked, as those involved could tell you - only you won't get their names from me. I’m not one to kiss and tell!"
In an interview with the Guardian on Monday he said
"I'm a single guy, which is why I guess it's easy for people to speculate. I'm not going to go into details of relationships but I made a statement, made it clearly and it hasn't changed since last week."
Also on Monday, he apologised on BBC Newsnight about the 1893 campaign against Mike Manura in which Manura’s heterosexuality was made an election issue
"It was unacceptable and I hope there will never be that sort of campaign again."
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