Gillian McKeith spat out by the Tories

Published: 25 March, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

HER current work includes advice on how to eat yourself sexy, and she is managing a healthy food retreat in Spain offering to “balance the body, harmonise the mind and ignite the soul”.

But before food guru Gillian McKeith became a household name for her range of healthy bars and faced down criticism from scientists, she harboured pretensions to taking a seat in the House of Commons. The diet fad philosopher’s plan to enter politics is revealed in a new book by Piers Wauchope, who  led the Camden Conservatives until he lost his Belsize ward seat in 2006. 

It sheds light on how the party view the 30-plus years of Labour rule at the Town Hall,  and reveals that in 2002 McKeith sat before a selection committee in the hope of standing as a councillor in Hampstead Town.

Her candidacy was scuppered when she stood down from being selected.

Recalling her interview, Mr Wauchope said: “It was very funny. None of us had heard of her and we were looking for a candidate to stand in Hampstead Town. We thought it would be nice to have a woman. She said she wanted to be a councillor.

“I remember her interview. The chair, Pam Chesters, asked her why she wanted to be a councillor and she said: ‘I want to be an MP for Hampstead’. I actually had to leave the room because I could not help myself from having an attack of the giggles.”

He remembers Ms McKeith’s husband, whom he describes as a “dapper New Yorker”, promoting his wife like a pushy parent.

Mr Wauchope said: “The impression she gave was that she had a really sharp and pushy team behind her – or, at least, her husband. 

“He kept saying she would be bigger than Glenda Jackson in a year’s time – we just could not work out why.”

At the time Ms McKeith had appeared on American comedian Joan Rivers’s show in California, offering diet advice. But she was yet to become a household name in the UK. 

That was soon to change, and was one of the reasons Hampstead Town was robbed of the chance of electing her.

Mr Wauchope added: “About a month after the interview, she wrote to us to say she could not stand after all, and that was the last we heard of her.

“It would have been interesting to see what she made of Camden’s school dinners – I’m sure she would have had something to say about children being served turkey twizzlers.”

Ms McKeith told the New Journal that she recalled her brief stab at politics with vagueness. 

“I must have had a moment of madness,” she said. “They wanted someone with passion and people suggested I try.” 

Ms McKeith, who now lives in Gospel Oak, was a resident of the Hampstead ward at the time.

She added: “I cared deeply about the local community, and at the time I was not known in Britain. 

“I thought I may be able to help make a difference.”

The food evangelist is not a member of the Conservative Party, and says she has yet to decide who she will vote for in the coming elections.

“I want someone who has balls,” she said.

– Who’s in Wauchope’s book?