"Were Friends .. Not Lovers": Nadine Dorries' Mate Tommy Keenan aka Stephen Rhodes aka Tom Bargery Plots Esther Downfall

Hallelujah! At last. At last we have at least a little momentum back in the public exposition of the ridiculous nonsense that passes for the parliamentary career of Ms Nadine Bargery-Dorries Mum-P and her unraveling tales from mid-Narnia. And, to be fair, she has not disappointed. You really couldn't make it up.

The Daily Telegraph today reveal an extraordinary plan by an associate of the Mum-P to disrupt Ms Esther Rantzen's campaign. Also bizarre. A campaign to win the Luton South constituency. This being one of those seats where an offensive MP troughing MP - Margaret Moran in this case - has long since given up any idea of re-standing.

Ms Nadine Bargery-Dorries Mum-P's associate is one Tommy Keenan, a radio presenter on BBC Three Counties Radio, who uses the professional name "Stephen Rhodes". This Tuesday he announced that he's quit the day job, with immediate effect, to stand against Esther for Luton South. And whereas there's no love lost between Ms Nadine Bargery-Dorries Mum-P and Ms Esther Rantzen - with some useful backstory from the "blog" that keeps giving - there is what the Telegraph term a "close friendship" between Tommy and Nadine.

She is famously separated/divorced/estranged/unmarried* from/to her husband/partner/
childminder/dogwalker/housesitter* Paul David Dorries. And Tommy is handily separated from his own wife, princess of the QVC blogs and voice of the trains, Alison Keenan.

But Nadine told the Telegraph only last evening that they "were friends .. not lovers". Sadly Mr Keenan did not corroborate this or otherwise when the question of this connection was put to him by the Telegraph. He apparently slammed down the phone instead.

Nadine has indicated that she is distancing herself from this unlikely parliamentary candidate, being as he's standing against a Conservative and all. He meanwhile told the Telegraph, before that slam down, that he'd heard via a third party that she wasn't actually that keen for him to stand. Yeah, right.

This is a very long way from the end of the bizarreness in this Nadine and Tommy show. The Telegraph conclude with this twist:

It can also be disclosed that last month Mr Rhodes posed as a whistle-blower in an attempt to stop this newspaper’s investigations into Mrs Dorries.
Using the name “Tom Bargery” – a combination of his real name and Mrs Dorries’s maiden name – he approached this newspaper purportedly offering damaging information on the MP.
At a meeting with a reporter, he demanded payment for the information on the condition it ended her career. He secretly recorded the conversation.
After a reporter entered into negotiations, Mrs Dorries’s lawyers contacted the newspaper, claiming to have proof that the newspaper had hidden “motives” for investigating the MP, and treating her unfairly.

*Delete marital options ad libitum. There's local coverage in Luton Today and indeed on Anglia TV. His last show is on iPlayer for five more days. And Dorries watchers may also be tickled by his previous role for much of the Les Dennis era as the Voice of Family Fortunes.