'I'm No Chump' Says Chimp

3:43am UK, Friday May 03, 2002

The man elected mayor of Hartlepool dressed in a monkey outfit has said his victory was no joke - and vowed to work for the good of the town.

Despite the dismay of some of his political opponents, Stuart Drummond - running as H'Angus - said: "Forget about the monkey. The monkey was there only for promotion purposes.

H'Angus

"I am the Mayor of Hartlepool, not the monkey. I am an independent but that doesn't mean I will not listen to views from every party. Hartlepool is a great town and with your help, I would like to make it better."

Mr Drummond, who had a platform of free bananas for schoolchildren, won the race after a second round from Labour Leo Gillen.

'Simulating sex'

But H'Angus triumphed in the second count with 7,395 votes to Mr Gillen's 6,792 after the other candidates' votes were reallocated.

The significance of Mr Drummond's outfit is that he was dressed as the mascot for Hartlepool Football Club, a character reknowned for his outrageous antics.

The monkey has been ejected from two away grounds, first for allegedly simulating sex with a female steward at Scunthorpe and then acted improperly with an inflatable doll at Blackpool 12 months ago.

One Labour politician said the result was "laughable" but local MP Peter Mandelson was one of the first to congratulate Mr Drummond. He told him: "I will operate you in every way I can."

Suspected spy

He added later: "He used a publicity gimmick but he is an intelligent and sincere person with a good university degree in business finance and languages.

"His campaign was not about monkeys, it was about real people, their aspirations, their hopes and their fears, particularly young people of this town."

H'Angus takes his name from a local legend which dates from the Napoleonic Wars, when a ship was wrecked off the Hartlepool coast.

Fishermen found the ship's pet monkey dressed in a military-type uniform and, after quizzing him, hanged the animal as a suspected French spy.