Monster Raving Loony Party

The Dartmoor town of Ashburton is famous for many things.

Pivotal in the tin mining industry in the nineteenth century, it is the largest town in the Dartmoor National Park and was recently named one of England’s coolest places to live by a trendy London magazine.

But political history was made in Ashburton, thanks to the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, which was established in 1982 undistinguished rock musician and former DJ David Sutch, known as Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow.

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In 1987 the party was at its most active in Devon. Totnes pub landlord Tim Langsford stood against Tory grandee Anthony Steen in the South Hams at the general election and polled 277 votes. Mr Steen won with 34,218.

Alan Hope, who ran the Golden Lion in Ashburton, then became the first member of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to hold public office when he was elected unopposed to Ashburton Town Council.

He served for more than a decade and became mayor in 1998. The Golden Lion had become the official party headquarters, and was the venue for its lively annual conferences.

Screaming Lord Sutch took his own life in 1999, and Mr Hope later moved to Hampshire, where he became a member of Fleet council – once again uncontested.

In the sixties he had sung with Screaming Lord Sutch, who made him deputy chairman of his new party in 1982. His election to Ashburton Town Council in 1987 caused a dilemma in the party as they had previously been decided that any member who was elected to a public office should be expelled.

That rule was changed at the 1987 party conference.

Mr Hope, who is also known as Howling Laud Hope, is the current leader of the Official Monster Raving Loonies. He and his pet cat, Catmando, were jointly elected as leaders but since June 2002 Mr Hope has been sole leader following Catmando’s death in a road accident.

He competed with a previous feline friend, Mandu, pictured, to be leader when he lived in Ashburton.

To date he has stood for election to parliament more than 30 times without success. The 576 votes he polled while finishing sixth out of six candidates in North East Hampshire in 2019 is his best result to date, along with getting 1.6 per cent of the votes in Leicester South, where he finished fifth and last in 2011.

Other party members have enjoyed success elsewhere, including in Devon.