GAWAIN TOWLER, Ukip’s former media man, claims he was briefly courted to be a Chinese spy. Towler, who was also head of communications for the Brexit party, wrote in The Critic about being asked to become a lobbyist for “some Chinese and Hong Kong firms”. He was then taken on a business trip to Hong Kong, fed oyster porridge and asked to procure official documents “before publication”. He tells us he spoke out about because “I’m a lowly scrote and they’re prepared to give flights, Michelin-starred hotels, cash, and that’s before the secret stuff they were after. Who has taken it?”
Although he declined to pursue the relationship, not everybody is convinced. “On my Facebook page someone’s actually accusing me of being one, and that this is deep cover,” Towler said. A close shave.
Royal pilot needs to be top flight
THE QUEEN may be making Windsor Castle her permanent home, but she’s still searching for a new helicopter pilot. The Queen’s Helicopter Flight want a new person behind the controls, who can provide “the highest standard of helicopter service to members of the royal family on official engagements”. Unsurprisingly, it’s not one for newbies. As well as “extensive flying experience”, candidates are recommended to have not just VIP experience, but VVIP experience. It is the Queen after all.
Chefs cook up help for Ukraine
TOP chefs last night cooked a charity meal for Ukraine, raising money for the Disasters Emergency Committee at Barboun in Shoreditch. Organiser Angela Hartnett told us she was looking forward to Chicken Kyiv, and praised the “family” focus of Ukrainian food. An online auction of culinary delights is open until Sunday. Tom Kerridge told us it was great to be able to “do something”, and that Harnett’s persuasive powers had got him there. “When Angela gives you a call and asks you to do something…” A benevolent Godfather.
Political rivals Rishi Sunak and Angela Rayner were all smiles at a Turn The Tables event for Cancer Research UK at BAFTA Piccadilly. Also there was Donna Air.
Elsewhere, musicians M.I.A and Diplo posed up at his album launch at the Ned’s Club, which The Bloom Twins also attended.
In Mayfair, Noelle Reno and Laura Pradelska went to the AllBright for an event celebrating the launch of AllBright Meta ahead of International Women’s Day.
Elsewhere, Tracy-Ann Oberman attended the Terrence Higgins Trust annual auction at Christie’s, where works by Conrad Shawcross and Antony Gormley were snapped up in aid of ending HIV. Some lots are on sale until Friday.
SW1A
MP Caroline Nokes said she felt “nauseated and exhausted and depressed by seeing female Ukrainian parliamentarians tweeting their lived experience in the last 10 days”. She told the House magazine’s International Women’s Day reception that her fellow MPs must “use our influence” to help them.
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DOMINIC CUMMINGS seems to have called a truce with Boris Johnson while there is a war on. The former No 10 adviser coined the phrase “trolley” for Johnson’s chaotic Covid efforts. But Cummings said war made Twitter “intolerable”, and so his pushing of “certain memes” is “over for a while”.
