6 September 2019updated 08 Jul 2021 10:33am

Gloria De Piero’s Diary: Campaigning karaoke, unsure voters and why I regret being a frontbencher for so long

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow Minister for Young People, Gloria De Piero (L) stand in front of the "Labour In For Britain" campaign bus at a launch in central London, on May 10, 2016. The referendum campaign was picking up pace again after regional and local elections last Thursday which saw Labour's Sadiq Khan elected as London's new mayor, and pro-independence nationalists returned to power in Scotland, albeit without a majority. Main opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was now being urged to get more involved in the EU referendum campaign. / AFP / LEON NEAL (Photo credit should read LEON NEAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Back in July, I told Ashfield Labour members that I wouldn’t be standing again at the next general election. I said I didn’t know whether that would be in three months or three years, but fearing it would be closer to the former, I was determined that local members should have the chance to select my replacement in time. I never wanted to be carried out of the House of Commons in the proverbial box, and from the moment I first stood for selection I always thought about a decade would be the right length of my tenure.

That I’m no longer a Labour MP doesn’t change the fact that I still support the party with every bone in my body, so I giggled when I did an LBC interview alongside the Tory MP Ed Vaizey, who is also retiring from parliament. Eddie Mair’s first question was: “Do you miss campaigning, Ed?”