Nikki Page Is Go

‘THEY say that in space no-one cannot hear you scream, but even John Redwood’s fellow Vulcans must have heard the blood-curdling yell that emanated from Anorak Towers when our weekly copy of Hello! dropped through the letter box.

A new Page in John Redwood’s life

For who should be on the front cover but the Tory MP for Wokingham clad in a black polo-necked jumper and shiny silver jacket.

John is sitting in the kitchen of the light and airy London home he shares with Nikki Page, ‘an unashamedly glamorous and dynamic’ former catwalk model.

It is not the only thing the ‘striking’ couple share – they also share the experience of a failed marriage (or, in Nikki’s case, three failed marriages), the same political beliefs and an interest in doing up houses.

John’s chance of moving into No.10 Downing Street and putting his own interior design touches to the country’s premier political residence may have ended with two failed bids for the leadership of his party.

But Nikki has political ambitions of her own after she ‘captured the public’s imagination when she put her name forward to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor two years ago’.

Unfortunately, with the notable exception of our silver-jacketed friend, she didn’t capture the imagination of her Conservative colleagues, who wouldn’t allow her to stand, but she is not giving up.

‘What amazes me still is people come up and say, ‘We really like what you wanted to do, cutting bureaucracy and bringing down taxes – would you be prepared to do that again?’,’ says Nikki, sitting on an impeccable cream sofa in her south-west London home.

And the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ – which is why the woman known as ‘Lady Penelope’ has let her name go forward as a potential candidate for the safe Tory seat of Kensington and Chelsea.

‘There tends to be the perception that if you like to look good and glamorous, you must be half brain-dead,’ she complains – a problem that the sharply dressed John has no doubt also encountered in his many years in politics.

‘In my experience, it’s definitely not the case.’

As the likes of Ann Widdecombe and Clare Short have proved so conclusively.’

Posted: 21st, January 2004 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink