Rats in a Sack: Billericay Dicky swaps pease pudding for pie and mash

Don’t say the Tories have no big ideas now they are out of government. New Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, Richard Holden, yesterday secured a Westminster Hall debate on one of his passions: providing traditional speciality guaranteed status to pie and mash.

“It is a staple of cockney cuisine, moving out to places such as the east of England and Kent as the cockney diaspora moved post-war,” he told MPs. “That is why there are pie and mash shops in Basildon today. We seek recognition to safeguard the heritage of pie and mash, and to promote pie and mash, both here in the UK and internationally.”

Billericay Dicky has been a strong proponent of the stodgy foodstuff going all the way back to… just before this year’s election, when his North West Durham seat vanished as part of a boundary review. He then found himself the candidate for Basildon and Billericay in Essex as the local constituency association was handed a shortlist of one by the party’s central office, ran by its then chairman: one Richard Holden (he quietly resigned from the role four days after leading his party to its worst-ever general election defeat).

Back in February, he denied planning a chicken run, telling ITV’s Tom Sheldrick: “I am bloody loyal to the north-east, Tom.” If so, wouldn’t he be advocating for pease pudding?