THE outspoken antics of MP Paul Marsden have raised many eyebrows in the past week.

But none have been raised higher than those of Mike Foster.

The City MP shared a House of Commons office with Mr Marsden for the best part of three years after they were elected in 1997.

And he is struggling to recognise the MP who is in hot water for speaking out against military action in Afghanistan.

Mr Marsden first hit the headlines for asking for a vote to be taken on the start of the conflict.

But it was his highly unusual decision to put on the record a private conversation with Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong that propelled him into the big league of Labour rebels.

(This memorably included the claim that Ms Armstrong said to him: The trouble with people like you is that you are so clever with words that us up North can't argue back.)

Mr Marsden has remained defiant this week and said: My views against the bombing have only hardened after this meeting.

I made it clear that I would not be backing down on my views that Parliament should be given a vote in this war.

A puzzled Mike said: To say I was surprised by all of this would be something of an understatement.

I watched on bemused, thinking this was not the Paul Marsden that I remembered...

Why? Because Mr Foster can clearly recall one of his old room-mates Parliamentary hobbies.

He was a member of an all-parliamentary group of military enthusiasts who took part in mock-up war games.

The clearly odd-couple parted company last year, in the midst of the fuel crisis.

Mr Foster stayed faithful to the Government while Mr Marsden broke ranks.

One of them had to go and it turned out not to be the Worcester MP, who now has the office all to himself.

He joked: I'm sure none of this would have happened if he had still been in with me.

I am not pushing for a job in the whips office - but I am well over six feet tall...