Editing Clement Freud (section)

== Political career ==
Freud stood in the [[1973 Isle of Ely by-election]], becoming the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for that constituency (later [[North East Cambridgeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|North East Cambridgeshire]]) from 1973 to 1987. In 1983, to support employment in his constituency, he assisted the management buy-out of a concrete pipe manufacturer in [[March, Cambridgeshire|March]], [[Cambridgeshire]], led by [[Captain Tom Moore|Tom Moore]], and became an investor in the resulting March Concrete Ltd.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Green |first1=Sebastian |last2=Berry |first2=Dean F. |title=Cultural, Structural and Strategic Change in Management Buyouts |chapter=The March Concrete Story |date=1991 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan Limited |location=London |isbn=978-1-349-21561-4 |pages=135–136 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-21559-1_6 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-349-21559-1_6 |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref> His departure from [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] was marked by the award of a knighthood.

In his column in the ''[[Racing Post]]'' of 23 August 2006, Freud wrote about his election to Parliament in a by-election: "Politically, I was an anti-[[Conservative Party (United Kingdom)|Conservative]] unable to join a [[Labour Party (United Kingdom)|Labour party]] hell-bent on nationalising everything that moved, so when a by-election occurred in [[East Anglia]], where I lived and live, I stood as a Liberal and was fortunate in getting in. [[Ladbrokes]] quoted me at 33–1 in this three-horse contest, so Ladbrokes paid for me to have rather more secretarial and research staff than other MPs, which helped to keep me in for five parliaments."

His autobiography, ''Freud Ego'', recalls his election win, and shortly after, when asked by his wife June, "Why aren't you looking happier?", he wrote, "It suddenly occurred to me that after nine years of fame I now had something solid about which to be famous... and cheered up no end." During his time as a Member of Parliament, he visited China with a delegation of MPs, including [[Winston Churchill (1940–2010)|Winston Churchill]], the grandson of the [[Winston Churchill|wartime prime minister]]. When Churchill was given the best room in the hotel, on account of his lineage, Freud (in a reference to his own famous forebear) declared it was the first time in his life that he had been "out-grandfathered".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6108143.ece|title=Freudian clips: The best of Clement Freud|last=Leitch|first=Luke|work=The Times|date=17 April 2009|access-date=17 April 2009|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615191032/http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6108143.ece|archive-date=15 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>