INTO THE FRIDGE

ON THE CAMPAIGN trail during the last General Election, Tory leader Boris Johnson hid in a fridge to avoid questions from reporters. It was a bold electoral gamble, but one which paid off, as his party was returned to office with a thumping 76-seat majority. But Johnson is not the only leader who has taken refuge in a fridge. History shows us that this cool ruse is a tried and tested gambit for many public figures...

1529 Cardinal Wolsey

AFTER failing to secure the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey fell out of favour with the king, who issued a warrant for his arrest. Tipped off by a courtier, Wolsey slipped out into the garden of his home at Hampton Court and hid in the ice house by the lake. The archbishop sat shivering in the dark, underground icestore for two hours until he was discovered by the king’s guard.

1974 Lord Lucan

JOHN Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan disappeared after brutally murdering his family’s nanny. Police quickly arrived at the scene, but could not find any trace of the Earl, who had taken refuge in the fridge in the kitchen of his swish Belgravia residence. It was an old-fashioned model that could only be opened from the outside, leading police to the conclusion that Lucan must have had an accomplice who helped him escape justice.

1981 Shirley Williams

WHILST campaigning as an SDP candidate in the 1981 Crosby by-election, Shirley Williams was confronted by a group of Labour supporters angry with what they saw as her betrayal of the party. Williams quickly climbed into the open door of a refrigerated lorry which was making a delivery to a shop. Without knowing the SDP candidate was inside, the driver shut the door and drove off to make his next delivery. Williams was discovered 5 hours later at Wetherby Services in Yorkshire, when passers-by heard banging coming from inside the lorry. Williams was taken to Leeds General Infirmary, where she was treated for hypothermia and piles, caused by sitting on a box of lollies.

1986 Calvin Phillips

CALVIN Phillips may have been the worlds smallest man, but he had extremely large gambling debts. In 1986, he owed bookies £15,000 after a bad spell betting on greyhounds, which to him were the size of racehorses. Phillips checked into a hotel to lay low, but his creditors discovered his whereabouts. Two hoodlums broke into his room, intent on breaking his knees with tiny baseball bats the size of a pencil. Fortunately, Phillips heard them coming down the corridor and hid inside the mini-bar by the trouser press, behind a bottle of tonic water.