Sir David Amess’s French Bulldog, 3-year-old Vivienne, has been crowned the winner in this year’s Westminster Dog of the Year competition. Escorted by MPs Andrew Rosindell and Mark Francois, Vivienne defeated 22 other pups to claim Parliament’s most coveted prize, winning both the judges’ vote and the public’s online votes by “tens of thousands“. Speaking this morning, Rosindell said:

“No one loved animals like David, and no one loved their dog like David. I could not feel more sadness at the fact that it will be me chaperoning Vivienne, his dog, at the Dog of the Year, instead of him, but I also could not feel more pride to be able to pay tribute to him in this small way.”

The pawfect tribute.

Politicos will be delighted to learn the much-loved Westminster Dog of the Year competition is finally returning after a two-year hiatus. 2019’s was canceled due to security concerns given the constant presence of Brexit protests, and 2020’s because of Covid. At long last, however, MPs will finally be able to get their puppies out for the press…

The Kennel Club has proudly announced the competition will take place on Thursday 28th October in the usual Victoria Tower Gardens. Guido wonders whether the expected Holocaust memorial in said gardens will force them to find a new venue in future…

Co-conspirator favourite Lee Anderson has made no bones about his intentions to enter, entering 13-year-old Alfie whom he adopted two years ago for the prestigious award.

Owen Sharp, chief executive of Dogs Trust promises the pageant will be “strictly apolitical; judges will be looking for the dogs’ good deeds and devotion to their owner rather than policies or opinions”. It looks like Alex Norris’ two-year reign – alongside his unfortunately named winning pup Corona – will be shortly coming to an end…

Whilst last year’s Westminster Dog Of The Year contest was cancelled due to Brexit-blocking chaos, the contest did go ahead in Victoria Tower Gardens in September 2018, being jointly won by two dogs belonging to Labour MP Alex Norris:

“two dogs Boomer and Corona have been announced as co-winners of the Westminster Dog of the Year competition.”

Paul the Octopus has competition. Now Corona and Boomers are just about the only thing everyone is talking about…