THERE has been a job swap amongst East Lancashire MPs -- Janet Anderson has taken over from Gordon Prentice on the Parliamentary Committee of the Labour Party.

This body is elected by Labour MPs in the Commons to represent their views to Tony Blair.

They meet the Prime Minister each week to ensure that he is fully aware of the opinion of backbenchers and their constituents. In recent years Pendle MP Mr Prentice regularly told his leader off for ignoring party activists and MPs, but this year chose not to stand again. Indeed he lectured Mr Blair that rather than listening to the views of focus groups of voters organised by his Downing Street "Kitchen Cabinet'', he should listen to the Parliamentary Labour Party which he described as "the best focus group in the country.''

Mrs Anderson -- a Blair loyalist despite losing her job as Tourism Minister -- should be an easier adviser.

One senior MP told me: "Janet should give Tony less ear ache than Gordon as she much more signed up to his "Third Way''

EAST Lancashire's lone Tory MP, Nigel Evans, addressed a meeting of the Ribble Valley Ladies Luncheon Club when they came down to London to eat at top people's store Fortnum and Mason's restaurant on Piccadilly. His fellow speakers were Neil and Christine Hamilton -- disgraced over who paid the bill for a stay at Paris Ritz and falsely accused of sexual offences by a deranged woman.

Mr Evans was delighted to congratulate his constituency ladies on raising £265,000 for cancer research charities and adding another couple of thousand on their London trip.

And he was amused by the contribution of Mrs Hamilton who had been a speaker at an earlier meeting of the club in the Ribble Valley. She told them: "As you may know, Neil and I have been in trouble before when accused of being in places where we were not. So could you all make an entry in your diaries that we were here with you at Fortnum and Mason this lunchtime just in case we need an alibi.''