Any Parliamentarian strolling past the open door of the Attlee Suite in Westminster on Monday evening would have been startled to see one of the Hon Members engaged in a punch-up in front of a cheering crowd. What's more, it was a woman throwing the meanest of right hooks that was doing most of the biffing and banging.

No worries chaps. The lady in question happened to be the new political champion of the fight game, and it was all quite legit. Charlotte Leslie MP was merely demonstrating that she is pretty nifty herself with her fists, donning the gloves and sparring with the captain of the GB men's boxing team Tom Stalker, as well as anyone else who fancied a round or two with the blonde bomber from Bristol.

A remarkable sight. A Tory she may be, but the slim and feisty Ms Leslie, whose appointment as chair of the All Parliamentary Boxing Group was exclusively reported by insidethegames, is actually a leftie. A southpaw who enjoys having a brawl.

The bash, if you'll pardon the phrase, was certainly a novel way to launch the re-born body, attracting a standing room only crowd of well over 100 boxing and political bigwigs, which included two world champions and 54 MPs who have signed on as members of the group.

Boxing may have had its nose bloodied in the past by the PC brigade but Charlotte (pictured) is on a mission to show that it has now become politically very correct indeed, an ideal vehicle for keeping wayward youngsters of the streets and teaching the discipline and sportsmanship.


Moreover, at both amateur and professional levels it has re-established itself as one of Britain's most popular and successful sports, with five current pro world champions, a record-breaking Olympics in Beijing and a best-ever European Championships in Turkey.

The cauliflower ears were sponged and pressed for a stylish occasion supported by the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA), which saw MPs joined by a host of people from all walks of boxing, celebrating the achievements of a sport which consistently delivers medal success and increased participation and is widely regarded as a valuable tool in combating a host of social problems.

Barry McGuigan was there, as eloquent as ever in promoting the virtues of the sport, so was Duke McKenzie, another former world champion newly honoured with an MBE for his work in teaching boxing skills to wayward kids.

Rob McCracken, Team GB's head coach came fresh from Ankara where two of his Welsh charges, Andrew Selby and Fred Evans, won Euro golds, while Scouser silver medallist Stalker, a self-confessed ex-scally who used to go "on the rob in Liverpool" before boxing straightened him out, came with the latest rising star, fresh-faced 17-year-old Charlie Edwards, who won a bronze in his first major tournament and according to MC Jim Rosenthal, could be 2012's new poster boy.

The Sports Minister Hugh Robertson lent support together with two of his Labour precessors, Richard Caborn (now Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) President) and Gerry Sutcliife - all are ardent fight fans.

But the bill-topper unquestionably was Charlotte Leslie, who says she watched boxing "in awe" on the telly as a kid, fell in love with it when she saw Lennox Lewis work out in Bristol and took it up seriously herself "when my mother took me to a gym as an angry 13-year-old and it saw me through to my GCSE's. I owe boxing awful lot".

Subsequently she has taught girls how to box and has sparred with Britain's premier professional female fighter Jane Couch.

The critical eyes watching her jab and move on Monday were approving.

I'd certainly back her to beat John Prescott over three rounds.

"Boxing is a pulsatingly tangible example of The Big Society," argues the MP who is undoubtedly one the Conservative's answers to the Blair Babes, a veritable "Cameron Cutie".

"I say to anyone who asks what the Big Society is, go to your local amateur boxing club and if you are standing in the wrong place it will literally hit you in the face."

The 32-year-old Oxford graduate, a freshman MP for Bristol North West, is also a national standard swimmer and qualified lifeguard. Future Sports Minister material?

In the meantime, the present incumbent calls boxing "a fantastic sport". Robertson adds: "In recent years it has emerged as one of Britain's most successful sports through its ability to increase grassroots participation, nurture talent and provide pathways for its most outstanding athletes.

"I know from visiting boxing clubs and seeing the pivotal role they play in their communities that in raising participation and developing talent, the sport is delivering across a range of social agendas and addressing issues such as knife crime, educational attainment and bullying."

The launch included contributions from the Charter Academy in Portsmouth, a secondary school for 11-16-year-olds, which introduced boxing, initially the non-contact version, into the school curriculum, for both boys and girls, with the result being that bullying has significantly declined.

It is now one of the first schools in the UK to include boxing in the curriculum as part of the GCSE-equivalent ASDAN CoPE (Certificate of Personal Effectiveness) qualification.

As McGuigan (pictured) told the audience: "I know from my own experiences, and the work I do now with young people through my academies, that boxing delivers an enormous amount of good to society. It creates opportunities, provides people with a purpose and teaches them about life and the things they need to do to get on and succeed."


Of course he was preaching to the converted, but a sport which has always needed to fight for survival, now has some powerful allies in parliament.

It is also a timely show of feminine muscle with the advent of women's boxing in the Olympics and politically when the blinked dinosaurs of International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) refuse to bow to pressure from BABA, the British Olympic Association and the IOC's Craig Reedie to revoke the seemingly vindictive ruling which will bar pro-coach McCracken from assisting British boxers in his customary corner position in the world championships and Olympics.

The case now looks certain to go to the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS).

Unless, of course, larruping Leslie can sweet-talk them into submission. If not, there's always the right hook.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire