EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Labour peer who lied about PhD leaves role at university

Catapulted into the House of Lords as one of 25 Labour peers nominated by Sir Keir Starmer, Dame Ann Limb has become the subject of great fascination since it emerged, just before Christmas, that she has lied for decades about having a PhD.

So I’m intrigued to hear that Dame Ann – who has donated £50,000 to the Labour Party – recently stepped down as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, a role which, according to her Who’s Who entry, she’d held since 2022, although a university spokesman tells me that it was for ‘the last two years’.

In any case, Dame Ann had been erased from the university website by the time the Duke of Kent, 90, Surrey’s Chancellor, paid a visit last week.

Dame Ann, 72, who is seemingly days away from taking up her seat in the Lords, declines to comment. But her departure from Surrey comes barely a fortnight after I disclosed that her membership of the Athenaeum club, of which she was chairman until 2024, was also at an end.

Rules published in 2022 say that Surrey’s Pro-Chancellors may, on occasion, ‘act for the Chancellor’ in his absence.

The regulations state that Dame Ann was ‘eligible for reappointment’ but was able to ‘resign in writing’ if she so chose. They also say Pro-Chancellors ‘may be removed by Council on the recommendation of the Nominations and Governance Committee’.

Limb’s departure from Surrey may only intensify the anguish felt in her adoptive home county of Buckinghamshire. It’s there, as I revealed, that she was recently appointed President of Milton Keynes Community Foundation – an appointment condemned as ‘disgraceful’ by one critic.

As the tenth series of Grantchester is aired, with the grand finale following in 2027, Robson Green, who plays DI Geordie Keating, has a plea: ‘There have been 78 murders, 77 of which have been solved by the vicar. Which makes me the worst detective in history. I’m, like, “Please let me solve a crime.” ’ 

Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell has said her career might never have taken off if she hadn’t been sent to boarding school. ‘It actually was probably a very good idea,’ admits the Oscar winner, 40, who went to £62,000-per-year Marlborough College, also attended by the Princess of Wales. The London-born star added that she would have ‘gone quite quickly off the rails’ had she stayed in the capital.

Helen should have been protected, says Corrie ‘aunt’

Helen Flanagan says in her recently published memoir that sexualised storylines she was given in Coronation Street when she was 16 made her feel uncomfortable.

‘Was it morally right that I was expected to parade about in my knickers like some mad nymphomaniac when I was still just a teenager?’ the actress, 35, asks. Now, Sue Devaney, who played her aunt, says the producers failed to look after her.

‘No one should have to go through that and feel uncomfortable,’ Sue, 58, tells me at the TV Choice Awards in Mayfair. ‘The people around her should have been protecting her.’

Could Chris and Nadiya partner up again? 

They waltzed across the dance-floor on Strictly and now Chris Robshaw hopes to speed things up with Nadiya Bychkova on another popular BBC show.

‘I’d like to do [Celebrity] Race Across The World,’ the former England rugby captain, 39, tells me at the TV Choice Awards, where he bumped into his former dance

partner Nadiya, 36, pictured in a dress by Rebecca Vallance.

In the travel series, teams race across continents by land and sea, without internet access and limited to the cash equivalent of a long-haul air fare.

Asked if he’d race with Nadiya, he says: ‘Possibly – she might know a route or two and be good with navigations.’

Red light therapy? It works for Miranda!

Red light therapy has become de rigueur for those who believe in its healing powers – but model Miranda Kerr has taken her devotion to extreme levels.

The 42-year-old posted an image of her intense ‘recharge’ routine, which involves wearing an infrared helmet that costs more than £3,000 and is said to stimulate the brain and improve cognitive function.

The bizarre look didn’t end there, as Miranda is seen wrapped in a red-light therapy blanket which is said to improve skin, offer pain relief and speed up muscle recovery. The Australian model also held two glowing panels to her cheeks.

Miranda, who is married to Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, has insisted that modelling is not as glamorous as many may think. ‘You’re constantly on your feet, getting changed and have to be in front of the light and do poses,’ she says.

While his old comedy colleague Hugh Laurie again earns plaudits for his award-winning portrayal of villain Richard Roper in The Night Manager, Sir Stephen Fry is making a fresh bid to crack America with a spy thriller of his own. Sir Stephen’s drama The Interrogator – in which he stars in the leading role as well as acting as an executive producer and writer – has just been given the green light by US network Fox. His acting career has long been eclipsed by Hugh’s, who first shot to global stardom in American medical drama House.