A woman 'infatuated' with an MP made false claims about being pregnant with his child and ran up a massive hotel bill in his name before expecting him to run away with her.
Sir Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale & Darwen, shared his harrowing experience of having a stalker with broadcaster Gloria De Piero. The politician described how the woman turned up at his door with a suitcase hoping to run away with him.
She told staff at a Lancashire hotel she worked for him and racked up a "huge hotel bill", also claiming she was having his baby. Sir Jake said the woman, who travelled from the North East of England, appeared to have a “fixation” with him.
In a candid interview, the Conservative MP, who was first elected in 2010, told of the terrifying stalking experience, his battle with depression and how his wife — a former aide to Boris Johnson — dealt with post-natal depression.
As reported in Lancs Live, he said: “She claimed that she was having my baby, claimed that we were getting married.
"She came to our house, was sort of at the end of the lane with a suitcase waiting to run away with me or whatever she had in her mind.”
Sir Jake also said he believed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should have held an endorsement vote after he was automatically given the job when he was elected Tory leader in October.
He said not there is a “perception” that Tory MPs are “disconnected from our membership” as Sunak did not show he had support of the membership with the endorsement vote.
Sunak replaced Liz Truss after passing the threshold of 100 MP nominations during the autumn leadership election. Former PM Boris Johnson decided not to stand and rival candidate Penny Mordaunt pulled out before the final run-off
Sunak's entry into Downing Street came weeks after he lost the summer leadership contest to Truss. Sir Jake served as Conservative Party chairman during Truss’ short tenure in No 10.
In an interview with GB News, the Rossendale and Darwen MP said: “I actually think it’s a great pity for Rishi Sunak that we didn’t have a vote of members. Because in the summer, fine Conservative that he is, he struggled actually to get the support of Conservative Party members — as, funnily enough, did Jeremy Hunt in the previous leadership election.
“And I think even though he absolutely got the majority of the Conservative Members of Parliament — and I support him as Prime Minister in everything he does — the challenge he has is, even if it’s not true, there’s a perception of the Conservative Parliamentary Party now being disconnected from our membership.”
Sir Jake said he thought Mr Sunak “would have won it well” if he had asked the membership to vote to endorse him but, instead, a narrative has been allowed to develop about members being “denied that vote”.
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