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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Ethan Croft

Labour’s hunt for celebs off to a slow start (but Baldrick’s back)

How glam can Labour get? In the New Labour heyday of the late Nineties, Tony Blair was sipping champagne with Noel Gallagher in Downing Street. Sir Keir Starmer seems to want those days back. Party HQ recently shelled out £50,000-a-year on a celebrity endorsements officer to secure the backing of big names. There is apparently a particular focus on winning over black and ethnic minority celebs. But progress is slow. The party’s biggest get so far seems to be Tony Robinson arguably best known as Baldrick in Blackadder. He publicly backed Labour for years but tells us he withdrew his services in recent years because he disagreed with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party. Now he has returned as the voice-over in Labour’s recent party political broadcasts.

Enninful’s harshest critic is at home

Edward Enninful (Getty Images)

How does British Vogue editor Edward Enninful keep his feet on the ground? Well, it seems that his most honest critic is his husband Alec Maxwell. Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Enninful says Maxwell is not afraid to tell him when he think a cover for the magazine is “awful”. Enninful will usually respond, “what do you mean this is awful? Everybody loves this.” To which his husband says, “yeah, they tell you what you want to hear”.

Robbie rocks Tel Aviv

Robbie Williams (Dave Benett)

Robbie Williams is visiting Israel for a one-off gig tonight and he said he saw “a lot of gratitude in people’s eyes” when he arrived. Yesterday in Tel Aviv he surprised a busker who was playing his song Angels on guitar by joining in with the vocals. The joint croon sounded unrehearsed. Sam Smith was supposed to join him in Israel but pulled out due to “technical and logistical” problems.

Dorries’ disappearing act

After the hoo-ha this week from politicians reluctant to hand over their WhatsApps to the Covid inquiry, we wonder if some have been missing a trick. In recent years, many MPs have turned on the “disappearing messages” feature. It means that, after a week, their WhatsApp messages disappear. Nadine Dorries and other former cabinet ministers have been known to use the feature.

Last night in town

BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty had a star turn hosting the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award last night on Piccadilly Circus. Model turned entrepreneur Debbie Moore was among the guests. At the revamped Battersea Power Station, models Jodie Kidd and Tigerlily Taylor celebrated the opening of Breitling’s new pop-up boutique and café while at Selfridge’s, photographer Zoe Zimmer attended the launch of a new Spring print collection by the Roberto Cavalli fashion house.

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