Lookout, it’s John Hayes!

Further to my previous post, another potential Tory rebel on Tuesday is someone I first met when he was 25 and I was 24.

In 1983 I had launched and was editing a national student magazine called Campus.

As I told Chris Snowdon on the Swift Half podcast, the magazine was subsequently banned by 40 student unions so we couldn’t sell it through the student union shops on campus.

This was a significant problem that eventually helped defeat the project but initially, to get round the ban, we sold it door-to-door in halls of residence around the country.

On one occasion that took us to Nottingham which is how I met John Hayes, now Sir John and chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory backbenchers.

Back then however he was still a student, albeit a leading member of the Nottingham University Conservative Association and a bit of a character even then.

We had to sell the magazine in the evenings because that was when students were most likely to be in their rooms. And it must have been winter because I remember it being dark, and cold.

Officially we weren’t allowed to sell door-to-door in halls of residence so the whole exercise had to be carried out discreetly and at speed.

In particular we had to be wary of informers (political opponents especially) who might snitch on us, and occasionally they did, forcing us to out-run whoever might be sent to stop us.

If I remember, as well as guiding us around some of the halls on the Nottingham campus, John acted as our lookout and although there was an attempt to stop us, we managed - with his help - to give our pursuers the slip.

In fact, we enjoyed one of our more successful (and profitable) evenings.

Our paths have crossed a handful of times since he became an MP (in 1997) and I started working for Forest, but I don't think he recognises me from that evening and I've been reluctant to mention it because it was a long time ago and today, as a senior Conservative (and former minister), it’s something he might prefer to forget.

Then again, I sense he's always been a rebel at heart so he might recall that evening with the same amusement that I do. I hope so.