Election '97: Family outing to sell grandad's message

Maybe Sulaiman was trying to say something. First dad. Now granddad. All of a sudden, Sulaiman - who has spent the first five months of his life canvassing ad nauseam - was physically sick.

His mother, Jemima Goldsmith, mopped up the mess from her chocolate-coloured velvet sleeves. To her it was baby business as usual, but to the entourage of Referendum Party stage managers, it was an interruption for which they were ill-prepared.

While yesterday's stroll on the edge of Putney Heath may not have been quite what Sulaiman had had in mind when his mother tucked him up in his baby Gap gear, he has little choice.

Jemima explained: "I can't really leave him behind. I haven't got anyone to leave him with," no doubt striking a chord with many a single mother. Mother and son were out campaigning with Sir James, who is fighting Putney, and David Mellor on his referendum crusade.

Sulaiman has been on the political beat since "day one."

He is, according to Jemima, "remarkably unfazed" about being hauled around the houses. "I think he enjoys it," she said. "I think he gets bored now sitting in a nursery."

The electioneering in Pakistan was certainly good practise for Sulaiman, who even knew how to handle the men with long lenses. "Can you look to your right, please," yelled a snapper as the family posed for the press. The youngest subject was first to obey his orders.

Jemima continued: "This is a bit public for me. I'd prefer to go on my own, door to door with a pram ... actually, its difficult to talk to people when there are press around."

Whether or not it was down to the presence of the press, Jemima spoke far more passionately about her son than the Referendum Party yesterday.

"He goes everywhere with me," she said, adjusting her veil and his hood simultaneously. "He's attached to me. He's a good boy, really. He's so easy. He's portable."

And when asked whether having Sulaiman on board helped to break the ice on doorsteps, she admitted: "It helps me, I don't know whether it helps other people."

Jemima was determined, however, to appear more than a mere puppet on daddy's string.

Challenged on whether she, herself, held strong views on Europe, she replied: "Of course I do. Why do you think I'm here? It's not just because I am my father's daughter that I'm doing this. I've got more convictions than that."

Unlike some other people she could name. "The biggest crime is the politicians changing their views minutes before the election."

While her canvassing practise in Pakistan seemed to come in handy, Jemima refused to be drawn into making parallels between canvassing with her husband and her father.

"It's a separate campaign," she insisted.

But the Mellor camp was quick to proffer a parallel. A spokeswoman at the campaign office said there was no point in panicking about Jemima's presence in Putney. "We don't see it as a threat," she said.

"She (Jemima) did it for her husband - and it didn't do him much good."