JACK Straw has been finally allowed back into Leeds University Students' Union where he cut his political teeth as president.

He went on to be president of the National Union of Students but four years ago, those at his original stamping ground banned him from the premises on account of the "human rights abuses'' he was responsible for as a Home Secretary trying to crack down on crime.

The Blackburn MP discovered the embargo when he tried to take his son Will - himself a rising student activist - round the union, only to find a plaque on the wall by the door saying he was banished from the building.

But now with Will president of the Oxford University Students' Union and a thorn in the government's side on tuition fees and other education matters, Leeds Students have thought again. Now Foreign Secretary, Mr Straw will be allowed back into the union buildings. He said: "I'm delighted.''

AS the season ends, Hyndburn MP Greg Pope's thoughts have turned to football.

He has celebrated Accrington Stanley's promotion to the Nationwide Conference as champions of the Unibond League Premier Division with a Commons motion.

Now he wants to repeat the exercise when they finally return to the Football League proper - which he said would produce "joy unconfined.''

THIS week Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson has the pleasure of meeting 1980s rock star Billy Bragg for dinner to discuss his ideas for electing or appointing a new House of Lords! But she is hoping the Labour High Command don't find out as he's pretty left-wing.

Burnley's member of Labour's ruling National Executive Shahid Malik has told Tony Blair to get a move on over joining the Euro. He is one of more than 200 senior Labour activists to sign an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to hold an early referendum on the issue.