Blackley MP Graham Stringer’s interest in transport is legendary…and so is his allegiance to the Labour Party.

So eyebrows were raised when it emerged that he was not only to attend an important meeting at the TORY party conference in Manchester next month but was actually to be the chairman.

Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce alerted its members to the lunch-time fringe meeting in the town hall on Monday, October 5, on the subject: “Making the best of our rail network - what is the future for tram/train?”.

The former city council leader would need all his debating skills to keep shadow transport minister Stephen Hammond, Salford Conservative councillor Ian Macdonald, vice chairman of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority, Andrew Coombes of Network Rail and Richard Montagu from Alstom.

Politics apart, Mr Stringer, a senior member of the Commons Transport Select Committee, would be the perfect choice to lead the discussion. After all, Greater Manchester narrowly missed out on a government trial of running trams of train lines last year. Local transport leaders put forward the Marple to Piccadilly line but just lost out to Penistone to Sheffield.

And he takes an active interest in the Commons all-party light rail committee which is chaired by his fellow Greater Manchester MP Paul Rowen – a Liberal Democrat.

Mr Stringer was in no mood to celebrate his all-party credentials when contacted by me. As usual, he didn’t answer his mobile. I left a message and within minutes, I got a text: “It’s a mistake,” it said. “I’m not an never was.”

But he did see the funny side. “It would be interesting, if true,” a second text message added.

Investigations with Conservative Party Central Office have unravelled the mystery. The chairman of the meeting will be, in fact, Altrincham MP Graham Brady, one-time parliamentary private secretary to Tory leader David Cameron.