Ex-Labour MP who had a butler puts his £7m seaside house up for sale

He has been upwardly mobile ever since his wedding day, when he and his bride, supermarket heiress Camilla sainsbury, left the reception by helicopter.

so it’s intriguing to observe the latest manoeuvrings by political turncoat shaun Woodward, once famously said to be the only Labour MP with a butler.

For I can disclose that Woodward — elected as a Tory MP in 1997 only to cross the floor barely two years later — has just put his fabulous house in the hamptons, on america’s north-east coast, on the market with a price tag of more than £7 million, and is intending to spend more time in London.

Unlike Tony Blair’s former mouthpiece, alastair Campbell, who has announced that he has forsaken Labour while it is led by Jeremy Corbyn, the adaptable Woodward, who stood down as MP for st helens south and Whiston at the 2015 election, has already declared that he will be voting for Labour at the next election — and would ‘serve my party again’ if the opportunity arose.

‘People underestimate Jeremy Corbyn,’ he argued during his most recent interview.

Few would doubt that the 60-year-old, who married his heiress bride in 1987, is capable of altering course in the most dramatic fashion.

he and Camilla, with whom he has four children, including food blogger Deliciously ella, bought the hamptons house — boasting a home theatre, gym and library — for £1.6 million in 2013.

But in recent years he has shared it not with Camilla, from whom he announced his separation in December 2015, but with cameraman Luke Redgrave, grandson of sir Michael Redgrave and nephew of Oscar-winning actress and far-Left activist Vanessa Redgrave.

Woodward, who served as a Northern Ireland secretary under Gordon Brown, was unavailable for comment.

While he is thought to be moving back to London to be closer to his family (daughter ella has just become a mother) his possible return to Westminster would be a source of fascination to many — not least those who try to keep track of his property portfolio.

at one time it numbered at least six residences, including a villa in Mustique, a house in France and a chalet in the swiss alps.