Ind: Colourful past as a 'tart' in Paris wrecks dream ofshortlisted Labour candidate

Colourful past as a 'tart' in Paris wrecks dream of shortlisted Labour
candidate

By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

The Independent
25 February 2005

Educated at a girls' grammar school and Oxford University, Christine
Wheatley, a trainee barrister, seemed to be a model New Labour candidate.

There was just one detail missing from her Curriculum Vitae: she had been a
prostitute in Paris.

Like a scene from Belle de Jour , Ms Wheatley, 53, had enjoyed a brief
secret life as a French tart. And like the classic 1960s film character
starring Catherine Deneuve, Ms Wheatley saw nothing to apologise for.

In fact, she said she was more ashamed of selling encyclopaedias in Germany
than her own favours on the Boulevard St Michel.

"Yes, I worked as a tart. I'm not ashamed," said Ms Wheatley yesterday. "It
was before I found proper work. I hit Paris with £300. I didn't have much to
spend. I had to find money.

"It was very gay. I was living on the Left Bank - Paris in the 1970s, and I
was a delightful young woman. I used to sit at a café on the Boulevard St
Michel. French guys would come along and say, 'Would you like something to
drink?'

"I would say, 'will have a coffee'. Then I would say, 'Would you like to
make love?' They always said yes. Then I would say, 'Do you have the money?'
Then we would go to a hotel." The romance of Paris was not part of the
picture, however. "It was not truly Parisian love," she said. "It was
usually only three minutes."

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former director of communications, once
boasted of a life as a Riviera gigolo but Labour Party officials took a dim
view when Ms Wheatley revealed all about her past to a local newspaper.

Her name was hurriedly removed from the shortlist for the safe Labour seat
in Copeland, a rural constituency in Cumbria, being vacated by Jack
Cunningham, a former cabinet minister who is standing down at the next
election.

She had impressed Labour leaders with her CV, which included the fact that
she was educated at St Paul's Grammar School for Girls in Birmingham, where
she learned French, before going to St Anne's College, Oxford, to study
politics, philosophy and economics.

She lived in Paris before travelling in Europe and after returning to
England, was training to become a barrister. She seemed like the perfect
choice for the shortlist for New Labour.

She had read about the vacancy in Cumbria in the magazine Tribune . Party
officials there invited her to an interview after she sent them a CV - three
ward branches in Birmingham nominated her - and making it on to a shortlist
of seven, was invited to a hustings meeting last Saturday. She travelled
from her home in Birmingham to give a speech but horrified officials
intervened after reading about her past life as a prostitute.

They contacted her, before the meeting, to tell her she was no longer on the
shortlist. Labour officials insisted she was not disqualified because of her
life as a prostitute but because she had been less than frank in her CV.

Ms Wheatley worked as a call girl for about six weeks in 1979 after
abandoning Belgravia and a job as a secretary with IBM to drift around
Europe's capitals.

After Paris, Ms Wheatley returned to London in the early 1980s and
eventually moved back to her home city of Birmingham.

Ms Wheatley said: "I am not ashamed at all. I have worked as an
encyclopaedia salesman in Germany - I'm more ashamed of that. We have single
mothers who want to be MPs, gay and lesbian candidates, so why not former
sex workers?

"I am just mind-numbed by Labour's decision."


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/pol...p?story=614574

Ms Wheatley said: "I am not ashamed at all. I have worked as an
encyclopaedia salesman in Germany - I'm more ashamed of that. We have
single
mothers who want to be MPs, gay and lesbian candidates, so why not former
sex workers?

It's because she's someone who actually worked for a living, not just a
sponger.

Following up to "mick" a@b,com

mothers who want to be MPs, gay and lesbian candidates, so why not former
sex workers?

It's because she's someone who actually worked for a living, not just a
sponger.

she sounded quite interesting on the radio, probably better than
those who prostitute themselves to big business.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Thames path-London-photos "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap