"Leave Julie Alone!" Says Lembit

Julie Kirkbride has received backing from an unlikely source for her hopes of standing again as the Conservative candidate in Bromsgrove.

The Tory MP has made it pretty clear she wants to stay on in Parliament, despite announcing she was standing down.

And now she's been endorsed by high-profile Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Öpik - who urged his own colleagues not to give her a hard time over her expenses claims.

Speaking to ITV Central, Lembit said: "I'm glad she's thinking about this. I know she's felt really shocked by the way she was treated in the media.

"She will have gone through this and decided, is there really something here so serious that I shouldn't stand again?

"I really hope that the Liberal Democrats in Bromsgrove will respect her wishes and not seek to make political gain out of this."

Of course, Lembit knows what it's like to be the centre of media attention, after dating first weather forecaster Sian Lloyd and then half of the Cheeky Girls (in a toe-curling Commons performance he told MPs: "I should point out that the other sister is still single").

Perhaps he sympathises. Or perhaps he's just taken a leaf from Chris Crocker's defence of Britney Spears.