Hamilton's wife tells of stress caused by defeat

Christine Hamilton (right), wife of former MP Neil Hamilton, yesterday admitted that the stress of his defeat had left her depressed and sleepless, and that she had lost a stone-and-a-half in weight.

The couple both lost their jobs when "anti-sleaze" candidate Martin Bell took Mr Hamilton's Tatton seat in the general election. Mrs Hamilton was her husband's secretary and had worked in Parliament for 27 years.

In a live appearance on BBC1's Kilroy discussion programme, 47-year- old Mrs Hamilton said: "Of course, I am depressed but I am also very optimistic. We have just got to pick ourselves up. We are absolutely exhausted.

"It is when you wake up in the middle of the night that it is worst. Nature wakes you in the middle of the night, and then I can't get back to sleep. I have lost a stone-and-a-half over the last six months. We have had a hell of a time for months.

Mr Hamilton, 48, compared the loss of his seat to the death of someone close: "It is akin to a bereavement. I feel as though I have been bereaved in a sense, because my career is something I've wanted to do since the age of 12 or 13."

The Hamiltons said they felt angry rather than ashamed and were looking forward to being exonerated by the publication of the Downey report into sleaze.

The couple won a generally sympathetic hearing from the studio audience. But some suggested that Mr Hamilton would find the experience of claiming benefits under the rules introduced by the old Tory government a rude shock.

One woman told the ex-MP, who said he had not yet signed on: "You haven't been into a JobCentre under the Job Seekers' Allowance? You don't even know you're born yet."