Stratford MP's Musical Tie

A BOWEL cancer survivor from Salford Priors who handed Stratford-on-Avon MP Nadhim Zahawi a charity musical tie that he inadvertently set off when he made a speech in the House of Commons was delighted by how much awareness the incident had raised.

Roger Band was at the parliamentary reception in the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday to launch Beating Bowel Cancer’s campaign. Mr Band, aged 73, who has recovered from bowel and liver cancer, arranged to meet Mr Zahawi to support the campaign.

Mr Zahawi left the chamber on permission of the deputy speaker Dawn Primarolo to meet Mr Band who handed him the tie, which he changed into for a photoshoot.

Mr Band told the Midweek Herald: “He said he was going to also wear it in the chamber, but we had forgotten to say it was a musical tie. It doesn’t make much noise but it activated when he stood up. It normally wouldn’t have been heard but the microphones picked it up. The charity is delighted that there has been a lot of publicity about this.”

When Mr Zahawi stood up to speak in a debate about the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) he buttoned up his jacket.

Blaming over-indulgence over Christmas, Mr Zahawi said he was wearing quite a tight-fitting suit jacket. He said: “I have a great habit of when standing up, also doing the button up.”

He didn’t realise he was wearing a musical tie until it started playing a tune, which was amplified by a microphone.

After realising the sound was coming from his tie, he paused mid-sentence and said: “I apologise. It is my tie to support the campaign against bowel cancer that was making that noise. It is a musical tie.

Ms Primarolo said: “Perhaps next time the honourable gentleman will be more selective in the ties he wears in the chamber and then we won\\\'t need the musical accompaniment.”

Mr Zahawi added that as the tie incident—now branded as ‘Tie-gate’—had gained national attention he hoped as a side effect that it would help the campaign and raise awareness of the abysmal track record on cancer survival rates in this country.

In Warwickshire alone, around 320 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer and more than 125 die from the disease each year.

Mark Flannagan, chief executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said: “Despite months of planning for the Be Loud Be Clear parliamentary reception, it took just one of our loud ties to raise the noise about bowel cancer in parliament and hit the national headlines.

“Being loud about bowel cancer is what this campaign is all about and we are very grateful to Nadhim Zahawi MP for his support.”

The tie is now being auctioned on Ebay, number 280618873525. The five-day auction will end today (Tuesday) at 3pm. When the Midweek Herald went to press, there were 20 bids reaching £151. The charity will receive 100 per cent of the sale price.