Lindsay Lohan accepts MP's offer to turn on Kettering Christmas lights after 'offensive tweet'

Post-Brexit British politics is rapidly becoming stranger than fiction

Friday 01 July 2016 16:34 BST

Lindsay Lohan asked to switch on Kettering Christmas lights in parliament

Lindsay Lohan has accepted an MP’s offer to switch on the Christmas lights in Kettering after being criticised for asking where the town was during the EU referendum.

At a time when British politics is in chaos and the shock of the Brexit vote continues to reverberate across the UK, the actress and impassioned Remain supporter found herself embroiled in a bizarre discussion in Parliament.

Lohan questioned areas in the UK for voting for Brexit in a flurry of tweets as results were announced. In one, she asked: “Sorry, Kettering where are you?”

Addressing the tweets, which have since been deleted, the Conservative MP Philip Hollobone claimed the actress had directed a “fierce and offensive” tweet at Kettering.

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

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1/66 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation – a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods – food and clothes being the most obvious – but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economy’s future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years’ time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget

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He asked if Lohan would accept his offer to switch on the Christmas lights to “redeem her political reputation” and raise money for charitable causes.

“On referendum night a week ago, the pro-Remain American actress, Lindsay Lohan, in a series of bizarre tweets, slagged off areas of this country that voted to leave the European Union,” he told MPs.

“At one point she directed a fierce and offensive tweet at Kettering, claiming that she had never heard of it and implying that no one knew where it was.

“Apart from the fact that it might be the most average town in the country, everyone knows where Kettering is.

“Would my right honourable friend support my invitation to Lindsay Lohan to come and switch on the Christmas lights in Kettering this Christmas?”

The Leader of the House Chris Grayling suggested Lohan “hasn’t necessarily fulfilled her childhood potential” but said the reason for this was now clear.

“Had she visited Kettering, she might have seen her career turn around. I think the invitation is one she should accept."

Lohan deleted all of her tweets and made no further comment on the result of the referendum, but on Thursday accepted Mr Hollobone’s offer.

Meanwhile, everyone else tried to process this latest development in an extraordinary week for British politics.

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Lindsay Lohan accepts MP's offer to turn on Kettering Christmas lights after 'offensive tweet'

Post-Brexit British politics is rapidly becoming stranger than fiction

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

Join our commenting forum