“I HOPE he holds on. I like Cleggy.”

These were the words not of a Lib Dem sycophant but a member of Esther McVey’s Tory campaign team.

The sentiment didn’t stop other Tories at Bidston Tennis Centre from adding to collective Labour groans when the former Con-Dem number two held on to his Sheffield Hallam constituency yesterday however.

Such big-screen declarations, and the announcement that neighbouring MP Frank Field was “duly erected,” were a welcome distraction for baggy-eyed activists scrutinising the count.

As the news slowed down and I wandered the sports hall floor, I found two Star readers evidently intrigued by our exposure of how Ms McVey had misled Commons expenses authorities.

Our coverage on the former CBBC presenter had gone down so well that I thought I could get a quote from the horse’s mouth when she turned up.

But she looked nonplussed when I put my questions.

“Who are you?” she enquired suspiciously.

“Conrad Landin, Morning Star.”

She glared. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

When council staff granted her request for a recount, I heard one of her supporters observe: “She’s great at the poker face.”

It was more like a falsetto smirk in gradual development as the hours went on.

No wonder activists were swigging something stronger than Lucozade from their plastic bottles.

Staff went through the motions again, but a trip to the jobcentre, and perhaps eventually a stint on the sanctions she has so earnestly championed, is already beckoning for the now-unemployed employment minister.