Peers batter MPs in pancake race

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Peers have swept to victory in one of the sporting highlights of Westminster life - the annual charity pancake race.

The BBC's Nick Robinson, on the media team, was pipped to the post in the last stride by Lib Dem Lord Redesdale.

He joined forces with fellow Lib Dems Lords Dholakia and Addington and Labour Lord Morris to create the winning team.

Each year teams of pancake tossers are drawn from MPs, Lords and journalists on Shrove Tuesday. The journalists came second while MPs flopped to third.

The annual event raises awareness of national brain injury charity Rehab UK.

ITV News's Mary Nightingale officially started the race on Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

A victorious Lord Morris said: "It was another great race and we are delighted to be taking the trophy. Of course, we're just pleased to be able to join with Rehab UK and to play our part in highlighting the really important issue of brain injury."

Explaining his performance later, the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said: "Being Westminster's answer to Usain Bolt I eased up just before the finish line.

"Unlike him, though, I wasn't miles ahead of my opponent and allowed Lord Redesedale to streak past me. Perhaps subconsciously I understood that the House of Lords needed cheering up."

The journalists' team won last year but this year saw Nick Robinson, Channel 4's Gary Gibbon, ITN's Lucy Manning and the Daily Telegraph's Andrew Porter beaten into second place.

The MPs gathered a cross-party team made up of Conservative Andrew Selous, Labour's Betty Williams, Conservative Steven Hammond and Liberal Democrat Martin Horwood.

Rehab UK used the event to announce an expansion of its services beyond those who had sustained a brain injury, to help those with learning difficulties and disabilities like motor neurone disease into work or training.