Not only, has Labour MP Ian Stewart managed to avoid the expenses scandal, but he has proved himself a bit of a hero to boot. He had to be  prevented by police from diving into the River Thames to try to rescue a man who jumped off Westminster Bridge outside the House of Commons.

The Eccles MP had kicked off his shoes and was preparing to go into the river as the man disappeared under the water was being carried downstream by the fast-flowing current.

But armed officers who were guarding MPs and their guests on the Commons Terrace outside the Strangers Bar which overlooks the Thames stepped in and ordered Mr Stewart not to enter the water.

A fire brigade rescue boat and a river police boat arrived within minutes and managed to snatch the man from the river, guided by onlookers from the terrace,  before taking him to hospital.

Mr Stewart, whose constituency will disappear at the next election, was entertaining visitors from Greater Manchester and Merseyside after a parliamentary reception for the North West Rail Campaign and Merseytravel which was hosted by Liverpool MP and Transport Select Committee Chairman Louise Elman and attended by new transport minister Chris Mole.

He said afterwards: “Nobody seemed to be doing anything so I thought I had better go in but  the police stopped me.”

Earlier in the day, he had rescued me when he spied me trying to get through a locked glass door in Portcullis House. I was in the process of being told by a policeman: “You can’t just wander around this place, sir”, when Ian opened the door from the inside and let me through.