From Armando Iannucci's Time Trumpet back in 2006, but just as relevant today.

Cotswold leader Lynden Stowe forced to show ID to police after being mistaken for Nick Griffin

• Steven Morris
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 1 March 2010 13.02 GMT
• Article history

Conservative party councillor Lynden Stowe, right, says he is sometimes mistaken for the BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Check out the link for lots more remixed Cameron posters.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:44 AM on 08th October 2009

A Conservative MP's assistant was arrested on suspicion of theft at at the Tory Party conference for taking a £150 bottle of Champagne.

Philip Whittington, 27, was held at the Midland Hotel where many Conservatives have been staying throughout their week in Manchester.

The parliamentary researcher for Tory MP John Baron was in custody overnight on Monday and quizzed by officers.

Mr Whittington was eventually released at 6am on Tuesday after insisting there had been a mix-up and he was happy to pay for the bottle.

Carousing: Tory party members drinking champagne at the Midland Hotel on Monday night, the same evening Philip Whittington was arrested

The arrest will come as an embarrassment to Conservative Party chiefs, who had ordered a Champagne ban to avoid offending recession-hit voters.

Mr Whittington, from London, has now been banned from going to any more conference events and could face disciplinary action by the party.

He was arrested at the four-star hotel after attending a fringe meeting and was taken to a police station in nearby Salford.

Staff at the hotel called in the police when they allegedly saw a man attempt to take a bottle of Champagne from a fridge.

They claimed he had already taken and consumed one bottle, which was priced at £150.

Mr Whittington, who also works for the party's Social Justice Policy Group, reportedly said the fridge was near a free bar area so he had assumed he could take it.

During his interview with police, the Tory insisted he would reimburse the hotel for the alcohol.

A police source said: 'He was clocked by hotel staff taking another bottle and they called the police.

'He was adamant that he was going to pay for it and there was no evidence that he wasn't going to pay. He had apparently drunk one bottle and was about to drink another.'

Tory Party leader David Cameron caught out sipping Champagne at a reception hosted by the Spectator magazine

A Conservative Party spokesman said: 'We have banned the individual from attending any further conference events and are considering what further action may need to be taken.'

The police said in a statement: 'A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of theft following an incident at a city centre hotel. The man was questioned by officers and it was decided that no further action should be taken.'

Mr Whittington is believed to be a member of the Poplar and Limehouse branch of the Conservative Party in London's East End.

The Midland Hotel declined to comment.

The incident is the latest embarrassment for the Tories involving Champagne.

Party chairman Eric Pickles had instigated a 'bubbly ban' and ordered members to be 'humble' because of the recession.

But a string of Tory MPs and party workers openly flouted the ban by downing bottles of Champagne in the conference bars.

Even party leader David Cameron was caught out when he was photographed with a glass of Champagne at a party at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel.

Another politician makes a twat of themselves.