THE constituency of Hartlepool has a habit of choosing colourful politicians. The town that picked a man in a monkey suit as its mayor and has Peter Mandelson as its outgoing MP, now has the chance to elect a poisoned-pen poet.

Jody Dunn, a Liberal Democrat barrister who hopes to replace Mandelson as the town’s MP, has an alter ego as a budding bard who writes venomous verse on the web.

Under her maiden name, Beveridge, she composes rap-like lines about wreaking imaginary revenge on a former lover in which she wants to pour paint on his car, kidnap his dogs and put worms in his fridge.

Dunn, a barrister and judo enthusiast, has already upset Labour voters in Mandelson’s former constituency with a poster campaign suggesting voters need an MP “with a brown belt not a brown nose”.

The photogenic candidate is publishing daily details of her campaign in an interactive “blog” on the internet, a first in by-election electioneering.

But the 35-year-old blonde’s poetry, posted on the web last year, makes far more fascinating reading. A work called Revenge lists all the things she would like to do to the man who has recently left her life. A married mother of four children, she denies that it is about anybody in particular.

There are a number of other efforts, including attempts to make politics sound poetic, and Saskia, a poem about the heartbreak of a marriage break-up seen through the eyes of a child, which appears to have been inspired by the Elvis Presley song, Don’t Cry Daddy.

Dunn writes of Saskia, saying: “Don’t worry Mummy . . . I’ll find you another Daddy.”

In Presley’s 1970s tearjerker, an imaginary child tells him: “Don’t cry daddy . . . together we’ll find a brand new mommy.”

Dunn has also written two books, Control Your Divorce and How to Help Your Children Survive Your Divorce.

The Hartlepool by-election is likely to be the last major test of public opinion before a general election next spring. Mandelson has been MP for 12 years in the northeast town, which two years ago elected Stuart Drummond, formerly the local football club’s mascot, as its mayor. The seat is vacant following Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s representative at the European Commission.

With a 14,571 majority for Labour it should, on paper, be a walkover for their candidate, Iain Wright. But the Lib Dems believe Dunn could upset the odds.

Similar doggerel has played its part in other political downfalls. Ten years ago, Tory MP and Methodist lay preacher Hartley Booth became besotted with his parliamentary researcher and part-time nude model Emily Barr.

The MP had a book of love poems published under the improbable name Justin Thyme. He sent her a book of verse called Our Love.

It included the lines: “You said you seduced me/ He who is tall/ Has further to fall — and I fell./ How I fell.”

Booth was forced to resign from his junior role in government.

The Lib Dems also have a past record when it comes to lame rhyme. Paul Marsden, an MP who defected from Labour to the Lib Dems after he accused party whips of bullying him, used to put his poetic offerings on his own website boasting of his affairs.

“She came in the night/ Dark hair, alive billowing as a trapped kite/ Marching forward, confident and right/ Her hips swaying and her red lips tight/ Then that smile so devastating in its might/ Tongue rippling across teeth so white/ Breasts rising as I feel the urge to bite.”

The Tories selected their candidate for Hartlepool, millionaire businessman Jeremy Middleton, last week. The date for the by-election is expected to be set this week. It is likely to be Thursday, October 7.

A spokesman for the Lib Dems in Hartlepool said:

“Jody did write this poem called Revenge but it is not about anybody she has been in a relationship with. In fact, her ex-husband is helping her campaign.”

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