British politician wants to sleep over at your house. He'll bring a box of chocolates and a sleeping bag.
London mayoral candidate Rory Stewart is asking people to invite him over for sleepovers in a bid to better understand Londoners' "concerns and ideas."
Stewart — who's running as an independent candidate after leaving the Conservative — is calling this, errr, initiative #ComeKipWithMe.
In a video posted on Twitter, the former Tory MP says "please have me to stay!"
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"That's a weird request," he caveats. Frankly, he's not wrong on that count. "But the way that mayors get to know their cities in by literally walking through every one of the 32 boroughs."
Walking is something that Stewart is rather fond of, it seems. During his unsuccessful campaign to become Tory leader, Stewart became well known for his public walkabouts. He would inform social media followers of his whereabouts using his #RoryWalks hashtag, urging people to come out to chat to him.
Now running for London mayor, Stewart has come up with yet another unusual idea for cosying up to the electorate.
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"It's what I found staying with Lorraine in Newham last week. It's what I found a couple weeks ago staying with a young man in Streatham," says Stewart.
"So please, have me to stay with your family, or just in your home, seeing your borough."
Not everyone is convinced by Stewart's big idea, though.
Dawn Butler MP replied to Stewart calling the initiative "patronising" and "some kind of university project/ experiment."
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Others rightly raised safety concerns.
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Someone in Stewart's replies asked him if he'd be paying rent, to which he replied "no."
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Some people told him to "get a hotel."
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"Promise to bring a sleeping bag and a box of chocolates," Stewart feebly offers.
That's a pretty paltry offer. Has Stewart checked out Airbnb lately?
I think you'll need more than a box of chocolates, mate.
Topics Politics
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
