It must be pretty depressing being Colin Challen MP, a low-profile “socialist” Labour backbencher who is likely to lose his seat when it merges with Ed Balls’ constituency at the next election. Challen believes that if he raises his profile, the local party will select him rather than Gordon Brown’s favourite. His profile-raising is not going well.

He fell off his bike recently in Trafalgar Square and has been telling his local press that “I was lying unconscious in the middle of the road” blaming the poor road surface caused by the Tory-run Westminster City Council’s low council tax – and says he is considering legal action.

The problem with his story is that there were witnesses who say he is telling porkies:

“He was never unconscious. I saw the whole thing and helped him off the road, where he was for a matter of seconds. I called 999 on my mobile and they sent an ambulance but the ambulance service made me feel pretty silly for calling them out for someone who wasn’t seriously injured. He’s now exaggerating the incident and making false claims about being unconscious – why can’t politicians tell the truth?”