Richmond pub owner jokes he'll close every other pub as he runs to be MP for 'free advertising'

A publican who registered his boozer as a political party ahead of the General Election has joked he’ll close all other pubs bar his should he win on July 4. Chris French, 47, who has owned The Mitre pub in Richmond for almost a decade decided last year that he’ll run as an independent for Richmond Park in order to get his pub publicity.

Despite conceding his chances of victory are slim, he swears he’ll “definitely get one vote”, albeit from himself. He told the PA news agency: “Our little pub that we have in Richmond is a lovely little pub and all the time we hear, ‘I’ve been living in Richmond for 20 years, and I didn’t even know this pub existed’.

“That got me thinking, how do you get out to people, and then about 12 months ago, I stumbled across that if I actually registered to run in the election, I would actually get the free advertising on 77,000 ballot papers.”

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But despite running, he doesn’t think he’ll beat MP Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democrats. “I’ll be voting for myself so at least then I definitely get one vote,” he said. Now whether Gillian (Craigie) my partner votes for me, I’m not too sure. If I only get one vote, it might be quite a frosty evening. Hopefully I’ll get two votes.”

Mr French also sniggered when asked about his manifesto. “I don’t know. Maybe close all the other pubs down in Richmond. Cut beer duty on The Mitre to maybe one pence and put everybody else up to 50 pence,” he joked. Mr French said he would be “absolutely chuffed” if he got at least 5 per cent of the vote, as this would mean the £500 deposit candidates are required to pay would be returned to him.

“It’s a small business and £500 is a lot of money,” he said. But as he quit boozing three years ago, he would celebrate with alcohol-free shandy. He added that the pub staff “probably rolled their eyes” at “another crazy idea” from him, he said, but insisted his other half Ms Craigie was “100 per cent behind it”.

He said: “She hears some crazy things from me all the time, so it was probably just another one of those hare-brained ideas that I’ve had. People are slowly starting to find out and they love it. It’s only been positive. They love the idea. There’s not been a single word of negativity about it,” he said.

'It’s so hard these days to get people through the door'

But all he wants to do is gain publicity for his business. He said: “If it gets an extra two people in, I’m happy. It’s so hard these days to get people through the door. Maybe just doing something that’s completely out there like this is the one thing that might get me an extra two people in through the door.”

The publican said he is not political and does not typically vote, with his interests lying more in “music and football”. “I’m not political and I don’t want to start treading on people’s toes because at the end of the day, I’m just a publican with a crazy idea to advertise his pub,” he said. “I don’t think I’d be very popular with the other local politicians if the people voted in a pub landlord over a politician.”

And he’d rather people bought drinks there than voted for him. He said: “I’d rather them come down and start spending some money in the pub than vote for me to be honest.” MyLondon contacted Sarah Olney for comment.

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