Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner’s bike stolen from Parliament

Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner was left fuming after his bike was stolen from outside Westminster.
Dennis Skinner.Dennis Skinner.
Dennis Skinner.

The 82-year-old MP discovered the theft of his 18-gear hybrid bike when he turned up to collect mail last Monday before a meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee.

He said: “It was parked 20 yards from a police box - but they can’t keep an eye on my bike all day long.”

Mr Skinner says he used the bike for exercise, completing three or four laps of Hyde Park on fine days in the Spring and Summer.

He said: “I have always cycled and then I had a heart bypass. I have always walked and so on and kept pretty fit.”

He came second in the Sheffield Star Walk in 1956 and played football with Pilsley Miners Welfare.

He said: “I was pretty good at long-distance walking but I was a better cross-country runner.

“I used to cycle around the constituency on a ten-speed Raleigh.”

Mr Skinner says he will not replace the bike straight away and will now wait until next Spring before he decides on his next bicycle.

Would Mr Skinner consider riding a Boris bike?

“Never in a month of Sundays!” He retorted. “That was an idea he took from Ken Livingstone.”