MP's Bill against bad haircuts

The motive was impeccable, the timing perhaps a little close to the scalp. Just as the Prime Minister's wife was living down her stylist's pounds 2,000 trip to Denver yesterday, a Labour backbencher called for redress yesterday for the victims of bad haircuts.

Introducing what he described as "a short, back and sides of a Bill," Austin Mitchell, MP for Great Grimsby, urged a proper registration system for British hairdressers. Of 110,000 hairdressers working in this country only 13,000 were registered, he said, while other European countries demanded recognised qualifications from anyone setting up a salon.