Political Ambitions
In May 2008, MacKenzie stood for election as a local councillor in Elmbridge. He lost the election, gaining 227 votes whereas the Conservative seat holder Glenn Dearlove won 679.
That same year, after Conservative Member of Parliament David Davis announced that he would resign his seat in the House of Commons in order to fight a by-election as a protest against the Labour government's plans for 42-day detention without charge for terrorist suspects, MacKenzie announced that he was likely to contest the election on a pro-42-day detention platform, stating: "I have been associated with The Sun for 30 years. The Sun is very, very hostile to David Davis because of his 28 day stance and The Sun has always been very up for 42 days and perhaps even 420 days". Off-camera, before a BBC interview, MacKenzie referred to Hull, which the Haltemprice and Howden constituency borders, as "an absolute shocker." Asked to clarify those comments, he said it was "a joke" and that he has "never actually been to Hull".
MacKenzie subsequently decided not to run for the Haltemprice and Howden seat, stating: "The clincher for me was the money. Clearly the Sun couldn't put up the cash – so I was going to have to rustle up a maximum of £100,000 to conduct my campaign."
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