A Foreign Office minister made a grand claim about Harpenden in the House of Commons yesterday.

Mark Field said: “Harpenden is indeed the most middle-class, and probably Tory-voting, town in the whole UK.”

This followed a question from the town’s MP Bim Afolami about the UK’s future relationship with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) after Brexit.

Mr Field, the minister for Asia and the Pacific, replied: “Never let it be said that my Honourable Friend does not have his finger on the pulse of his constituents. I am sure they talk of little other than the OECD in the Stockbrokers Arms in Harpenden.”

He assured Mr Afolami, who himself used to work for HSBC, that the UK should expect a renewed commitment from the OECD to open markets.

But the minister was warned by the Labour MP for Hove Peter Kyle: “Hove is also middle class — it used to vote Tory, too.”

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