'El Tel' the maverick MP who told a Prime Minister to 'resign you plonker'

Terry Lewis knew everybody and everything07:22, 26 Jul 2026He called me and everyone else 'kid' even though I was by then in my late twenties.‌I inherited MP Terry Lewis from the previous M.E.N. Salford district reporter in 1988 - and it was like being handed the keys to the city.‌Nicknamed 'El Tel', he knew everybody and everything. He was fearless and could be both eloquent and direct when triggered.‌The late MP was authentic - the personification of a great constituency representative. In the House of Commons he once confronted then Prime Minister, John Major, and asked him "Why don't you resign you plonker"?A brew in his office in Walkden - just behind The Stocks pub - was guaranteed to end in a story, tip, and laughter. He despised Salford's biggest landowners, Peel, and the Blairites