Pound red-faced over Cheeky turn

The Cheeky Girls unveil their new member

Labour MP Stephen Pound is squirming with embarrassment over pictures of him dressed as a Cheeky Girl.

The tattooed Ealing North MP performed two songs with the pop duo at an MPs' variety night on Thursday.

"I was cringing so deep inside my Spandex hot pants I did not even notice the crowd's reaction," said Mr Pound.

But he did not mind making a "complete plonker" of himself as it had raised £100,000 for Macmillan cancer care.

Cheeky Girl Gabriel Irimia is the girlfriend of Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik - and it was Mr Opik, together with Tory MP Nigel Evans, who came up with the idea for his cheeky stunt at the annual Parliamentary Palace of Varieties.

'Terminal embarrassment'

"It wasn't my idea - I was outvoted two to one, as to who was going to be a Cheeky Girl," explained Mr Pound.

The newly-formed trio performed the Cheeky Girls' hit Touch My Bum and the Right Said Fred number I'm Too Sexy before an audience of MPs at the Intercontinental Hotel in central London.

Lembit Opik and Nigel Evans persuaded Mr Pound to drag up

But Mr Pound - who dressed up as Queen guitarist Brian May at last year's event - said he was "so overcome with terminal embarrassment" he could barely look at the crowd.

"I think they viewed it with a mixture of disgust and pity," joked the MP.

But he said he was not looking forward to the newspapers getting hold of the pictures.

"I have got to look my kids in the eye at some point this weekend," he told the BBC News website.

And, he added, he did not foresee a new career as a Lily Savage-style female impersonator.

"I represent absolutely no challenge to Paul O'Grady's crown."