Regular readers of Counterpoint will be relieved to know that Austin Haddock MP is no more.
Flamboyant Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell changed his surname by deed poll to Haddock during the Labour Party conference in a publicity stunt in support of Seafood Week (The Grocer, October 5).
But he told an audience at the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Food Drink & Agriculture Group dinner at the House of Commons that he changed his name back again when his wife threatened to change her name to Chips.
He also revealed how the stunt came about. "They wrote to all the MPs with fishing constituencies asking them to change their name to their favourite fish and I was the only bugger stupid enough to do it."

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