Telegraph goes gay

Sigh ...

Daily Telegraph
Spy March 22nd
Celia Walden

Mili fan club

"The only contender my eye lingers on is David Miliband," wrote Julian Clary in the New Statesman last year. "Quite attractive, especially when he undoes his top button at fringe meetings. Puts me in mind of a bit of rough from Liverpool."

And Clary, it seems, is not alone: the boyish Environment Secretary is striking a chord with the gay community. His voting record on gay rights has regularly been used by Pink News to contrast against Gordon Brown's and he is, in the words of one, swiftly becoming "a gay icon". When Spy informed his office of the good news, the initial response was bafflement. "Are you seriously asking me to respond to this?" asked a spokesman. "Well, I don't think that...I just think... Really, I mean...I... Well... It just doesn't sound like the sort of thing David would want to respond to."

Fifteen minutes later, Miliband's office rang back. "I have a quote for you," says a sheepish voice " 'I'm sure David will be very flattered to learn this'."

This drew an amused response from Pink News:

Being a serious news organisation, PinkNews would never consider phoning the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and asking trivial questions about ministers being gay icons.

So luckily the Torygraph did it for us.

Give 'em a gold star for trying ...