IT'S usually babies that politicians are famed for kissing but for Derby's new UKIP leader it was once a different story.
Councillor Alan Graves has revealed that he used to be a fancy dress kissogram and singogram.
Mr Graves used to dress up as Tarzan, a gorilla, or covered in balloons.
He said he had the job to pay his way through education and support his family.
The politician, elected to represent Alvaston ward in last month's city council elections, did the work when he was in his late teens and early 20s and is now 51.
He said: "It was good money. I would have been claiming benefits but I've never been one to do that so I became self-employed and earn my money that way.
"It funded my education at Wilmorton College, and I also had a wife and a child and I was providing for them as well."
Mr Graves said he would be invited to peoples' homes where he would deliver his kiss or song for birthdays, hen nights, and wedding anniversaries.
He said: "I would turn up and sing or kiss, or both, at these events.
"Most of the time I would pick up the woman who the celebration was about and hold them for a photo.
"I remember the heaviest woman I picked up weighed about 20 stone."
Mr Graves said that, if he was in the balloon costume, the women would pop the balloons until he was down to just underwear.
When he sang, he said they used to be songs and ditties he had made up himself about the person who was celebrating.
Mr Graves added: "I can't sing now. I think I can but everyone else tells me I can't."
He said that no-one was ever able to play a trick on him by sending him to the wrong address because people had to pay a deposit.
Mr Graves said: "I was very meticulous and very careful with it.
"We used to make sure they'd paid so there was no chance of being sent to the wrong place."
He said he was not "embarrassed" to talk about the subject.
Mr Graves said: "People might say 'how can he be a serious politician if he's done that' but the last time I did that was when I was 21 and I'm now 51."
He had previously been Labour councillor for Alvaston before becoming an independent and then turning to UKIP ahead of losing his seat in 2012.
But he returned to the council with UKIP last month.
Mr Graves is also his party's candidate for South Derbyshire, where he will be up against Conservative incumbent Heather Wheeler, and Labour's Cheryl Pidgeon.
The Liberal Democrats are yet to name their candidate for the constituency.
chris.mallett@derbytelegraph.co.uk
