Ayesha Hazarika was a stand-up before politics

Ed Miliband’s former special adviser is going on a stand-up tour.

Ayesha Hazarika, who was also Harriet Harman’s chief of staff, was a comedian before she worked full-time for the Labour party. Her service was rewarded with an MBE in last year’s new year’s honours.

She has since stepped down from day-to-day politics after 12 years, but remained a media commentator – as well as returning to her stand-up roots.

Following her comeback hour at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, about her time on the campaign trail and entitled Tales From The Pink Bus, she is about to go on her first tour – and again politics is on the agenda.

State Of The Nation promises to ‘lift the lid on what life’s really like behind the scenes at Westminster with brutal honesty and humour’ as well as and asking: ‘What’s next for British politics?’

Even when a Westminster aide, Hazarika occasionally made the headlines, rather than remaining in the background. Her MBE was cited as an example of cronyism and in 2012 she reportedly clashed with Hugh Grant in a heated late-night discussion about press regulation at the Midland Hotel in Manchester.

According to The Mail on Sunday, she was trying to explain something, when the actor suddenly got angry and called her a "fucking areshole".  Hazarika told him he was being "pretty fucking rude". He apologised and she accepted.

Her tour kicks off with five nights at London’s Soho Theatre in April. The full schedule is here.

Published: 30 Jan 2017