Ex-MP defends guilty stepson

DAVID Gilroy’s stepmother is an ex-Labour MP who was dubbed one of then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “Babes”, it has emerged.

Linda Gilroy, 62, represented Plymouth Sutton, in Devon, from 1997 until 2010.

She married Gilroy’s father Benny, now 72, in 1987 – nine years after he was divorced from his first wife Grace, 76, in 1978.

Benny Gilroy worked part-time as his MP wife’s parliamentary and constituency assistant and the couple shared a harbour-side flat in Plymouth.

She eventually lost her seat to the Tories.

The couple travelled to Edinburgh for the trial, and regularly accompanied Gilroy to hearings. When passers-by challenged Gilroy’s wife Andrea about why she was loyal to her husband, the former MP was heard to say: “Because he’s not guilty.”