A SPECIAL tribute has been paid to veteran Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody by local thespian Ken Davies, following her death at 77.

A SPECIAL tribute has been paid to veteran Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody by local thespian Ken Davies, following her death at 77."Why does everyone have to show her as Vinegar Lil? I met her in 1970 in Poland at the Poznam Trade Fair when she was trade minister in Harold Wilson's government," said Mr Davies of the Masquerade theatre group."She was a formidable politician. She came round the fair as part of her duties, and I met her. "We never read about her as a lovely lady, but you can see she was. It is a great shame there is not a nice picture of her in the papers.Mr Davies, who lives in Newton Poppleford, has a photograph of the politician taken at the fair, with him pictured behind her coming out of a caravan.At the time he worked for Kanga tools, later becoming its commercial manager, and was involved in its stand at the fair.He was sporting a beard as he was also taking part in a performance of Ibsen's Pillars of Society while there.More recently he has been involved in Masquerade's successful tour of Sausage and Mash evenings in Tipton St John and Woolbrook, with four performances of two one-act plays, which have raised £2,250 for the cancer charity Force. Ms Dunwoody was the longest serving female MP, joining the Labour Party in 1946, and was MP for Exeter in 1966.She became minister for trade in 1967, losing her seat in 1970.When Mr Davies sent her a copy of the letter six years ago she replied to him confirming it was her and commenting on her looks at the time as "beautiful".