LONDON — Labour frontbencher Rosena Allin-Khan has found herself with a very different whipping arrangement after securing financial backing from Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James.
The British novelist — whose erotic thrillers have sold millions — provided the £5,000 fund to Allin-Khan in May under her real name, Erika Mitchell.
The cash from James, known for storming the literary world with her tales of a BDSM-obsessed billionaire, will be used to help the shadow mental health minister fund a political adviser in her office. The donation appears in the latest register of MP’s financial interests, and POLITICO has confirmed it is the same Erika Martin.
The Fifty Shades trilogy, which was turned into a series of blockbuster films, helped make James a multimillionaire, despite being mocked at times for its eye-watering sexual escapades — including peeled ginger root being inserted into various orifices — and tortured metaphors.
“I feel the colour in my cheeks rising again. I must be the colour of The Communist Manifesto,” one dubiously-political excerpt reads.
While James has kept her political allegiances largely quiet, she recently told the New Statesman that reversing Brexit was the single thing that would make her life better, and has been a vocal supporter of the National Health Service. Allin-Khan has worked as a junior doctor in accident and emergency.
James is one of several private donors recently to have handed over cash to boost shadow ministers’ staffing budgets.
The cash lift for Allin-Khan comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted his own penchant for raunchy prose, saying in May he was “really into” the works of Jilly Cooper.
Sunak said he valued the “escapism” of the novels which detail a series of lusty encounters in the horse-riding world.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct an error in E.L. James’ real name.
