“I’M A PROVINCIAL GAY, NOT A METROPOLITAN GAY”
“I was going to suggest wild swimming, but I’ve had a bit too much cake and beer lately to be pictured in my swimwear — this is the problem with having a dancer with a six-pack as a boyfriend!” laughs Luke Pollard, Labour’s sitting MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport since 2017.
It’s an inconceivably hot morning in March, and I’m shadowing Pollard in his constituency for the day. The water at Firestone Bay, also known as Devil’s Point, is painfully inviting, boasting breathtaking views of Stonehouse Peninsula, Drake’s Island and Plymouth Sound, on which gigantic, stationary warships are a commanding presence.
The weather has attracted a clutch of sunbathers who greet 42-year-old Pollard with equal warmth. Although the bigger local celebrity is Spearmint, a friendly wild seal, who, despite being rescued, rehabilitated and rewilded last year, now calls the picturesque pebble beach in question home. (It’s not quite the cuteness overload story it sounds: Spearmint has become attached to humans after being hand-fed bread by a minority of clueless admirers.)
Today, as per a sign from the Seal Alliance, locals keep a respectful distance; so too does Pollard, Plymouth’s first publicly gay MP, as he shoots social media content to support his campaign and petition to make the bay a designated bathing water area, subject to regular testing for water quality.
The Plymouth native is clearly passionate about Britain’s ‘Ocean City’, home to the National Marine Aquarium (the UK’s largest) and Tinside Lido, a stunningly attractive-themed party. Adding to the aquatic connection is Olympic diver Tom Daley, who was born here and trained at the city’s Life Centre. Pollard admits to having “bumped into” this “fantastic role model” in the past — albeit in London — and says: “I’d love to have him round for dinner with me and Sydney.”
