Rishi Madlani watches football with Sir Keir Starmer

WE all know Sir Keir Starmer loves football but that doesn’t make the “come on England” photo shoots any less of a cringe bomb.

There he was in a bar in Bloomsbury during the winter World Cup last year, with photographers on the other side of the pub table, and him apparently ecstatic beyond belief that the Three Lions had scored a goal against Wales in Qatar.

It was an event to show solidarity with LGBT+ fans who understandably were struggling to fathom why the tournament had gone to a country where being gay is a crime.

Next to him, also punching the air with the same I BLOODY LOVE ENGLAND theatrics was ward councillor Rishi Madlani – part of Camden Council but fairly well known among Labour members in Westminster as his patch runs up to the borough boundary.

Fast forward 12 months and Cllr Madlani is hoping for an upgrade with a mission to land a place among Sir Keir’s team of MPs in the House of Commons.

The open secret that he had been positioning to be Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Leicester East – where the expelled Claudia Webbe soldiers on as an independent MP despite a criminal conviction for harassment – was at last confirmed this week.

Ms Webbe is in danger of losing her seat to Labour next year and it was announced the list of possible candidates had swiftly been razored by organisers to just two: Cllr Madlani and Rajesh Agrawal, one of Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayors for London.

Cllr Madlani in the council chamber

Cllr Madlani has for a long time been on board Sir Keir’s centrist ship, almost certainly sailing to power despite the strife which has met his response to the conflict in the Middle East. He is in fact one of three councillors in the leader’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency who want a seat.

Adam Harrison missed out on standing for the party in the City of Chester earlier this year, but Danny Beales is getting another crack at Uxbridge and South Ruislip – he blames Mr Khan’s expansion of ULEZ for a defeat in a parliamentary by-election.

You see folks, you can criticise Labour policy and not get suspended from the party.

Naturally, all of this manoeuvring has led to familiar gossip about greasy poles and so on.

And Harrington can introduce you to more than a few people who think Cllr Madlani is a rather slippery friend to all.

But while he is indeed an expert networker, and knows where to be and who to back at the right times, there is something to be said for his service as a councillor.

He’s racked up nine years in the council chamber, not something many get-there-quick wannabes really want to do on the career path to Westminster.

And whether you agree with his takes or not, he is active, alert and engaged, unlike some who have passed through the Town Hall just to tick a box on their CV.

Rather than us all saying that they are only a councillor because they want to be an MP, maybe it should be flipped to: you can only be an MP if you have been a councillor. And, for that matter, one that takes the time to see inside overcrowded flats or hold effective surgeries for those relying on food banks. It may seem like the easiest way to get to parliament – especially if it’s in Mr Starmer patch – but, done properly, being a councillor can be an instructive rite of passage.

Cllr Madlani will no doubt also tell us that he hasn’t toured the country looking for any constituency: he’s asking to be selected in his childhood city. Anybody back in Camden can vouch for how much he bangs on about Leicester – and the days he turned up to meetings in a Leicester City football scarf.