Highs and lows of an Oldham MP

AN Oldham MP has revealed his innermost thoughts in a personal diary kept in the run-up to the election.

Phil Woolas kept the diary from January 1 to May 9 in the final four months of Labour being in power.

In an entry on January 6, the Oldham East and Saddleworth MP stated that he feared his chances of winning the election were “slim”.

But days before the election he wrote despite nationally it being a “car crash” for Labour, the reception in the constituency was good.

Mr Woolas said Labour would have won a forth term under Tony Blair and recounts the visit to Oldham by Gordon Brown which went so well — only to be ruined half-an-hour later when in Rochdale the then Prime Minister was caught calling a Labour voter “a bigoted woman.”

Mr Woolas also revealed at times he questioned whether it was all worth it.

He wrote: “I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want to do this any more.

“It is physically exhausting, the abuse and hassle is awful, the volume of work is simply so much that you can’t do it all or even half of it.”

He added that the job was a calling, an addiction and feared the Tories would “wreck it for everyone”.

The Oldham MP said the expenses scandal left him unable to eat or sleep and constantly being Labour’s fall guy in the national media left him drained.

The final entry details how the numerous recounts on election night and the following day — which saw him retain his seat with a 103 majority — made him ill.

Mr Woolas said of the diary: “I wanted people to know the realities of the high-profile job and that politicians are just human beings like everyone else.

“It is a very honest diary reflecting my highs and lows.

”The truth is that much political activity is misrepresented by the prism of the Westminster Village.”