[James]

Big Brother Derek backs Cameron

By Ollie Stone-Lee
BBC News political reporter at the Conservative conference in Blackpool


Derek Laud says being gay and a Tory are among his minority groups

Conservative leadership challenger David Cameron has secured the backing of one of Britain's most famous Tories - Big Brother contestant Derek Laud.

Mr Laud told a Tory conference fringe meeting he did not think any of the would-be leaders would make it past the auditions of the reality TV show.

But the gay ex-Tory speechwriter said: "A very significant number of women vote in the Big Brother contest.

"Good looks are very important and David Cameron is very attractive."

It comes after Mr Cameron told the conference in Blackpool he wanted to switch on a whole new generation to the Conservative Party.

Jacuzzi politics

Mr Laud, who worked for former MP Michael Brown and helped write some of Margaret Thatcher's speeches, was speaking at a Countryside Alliance fringe meeting about the power of minorities.

He said he was a good candidate to speak about the issue since he belonged to a long list of minorities himself: he was gay, black, a fox hunter and a Conservative.


"The Conservative Party has not appeared to be authentic, the body language does not appear to support what they say" - Derek Laud

The Tories, he said, could learn from the Big Brother phenomenon - something he had pondered when not watching Anthony and Makosi's antics in the hot tub in the last series of the show.

He said he had proved popular on the show - surviving 10 of the 11 weeks - because he had "authenticity".

"I was being real," said Mr Laud. "The problem that the Conservative Party has had for some time is that it has not appeared to be authentic, that the body language does not appear to support what they say."

He said the public perception of the party was that it was obsessed with small issues that bore no relation to ordinary people's experiences.

Hunt group's impact

Mr Laud said minority groups should not be treated any differently from anybody else and argued it was involving individual people which mattered.

But shadow environment and rural affairs secretary Oliver Letwin said minority groups could have a "colossal seismic impact on British politics" by their impact on elections locally.....

Full article here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4311070.stm

I've heard that Derek has been commenting on the Conservative conference on Radio 5 Live recently. He's also speaking to the Cambridge Union on October 26th. Story.