BY JONATHAN OLIVER

FILM star Alan Rickman is being lined up to stand as Labour’s candidatein the Kensington and Chelsea by-election.

London Labour MPs have asked the Die Hard and Robin Hood actor to puthis name forward, believing that only a celebrity candidate would have achance of winning the safe Tory seat. Former Cabinet Minister MichaelPortillo is hot favourite to be the Tory candidate for the seat madevacant by the death of Alan Clark.

Rickman, 53, is a life-long Labour supporter and his girlfriend RimaHorton is a leading light in the Kensington and Chelsea party. One MPsaid: “Alan has expressed an interest in getting more involved inpolitics.

“He is very talented and has bags of charisma. He is the sort ofcandidate who just might be able to stop Portillo.”

Rickman now lives in fashionable Notting Hill, but he was brought up ina cramped house in Acton, West London. His painter and decorator fatherdied of cancer when he was eight.

Rickman says he has been a Labour Party member since the day he wasborn.His girlfriend Rima, who is a local councillor in Kensington, has threetimes tried and failed to be selected as a parliamentary candidate.

Rickman’s own canvassing experience has so far been limited. “He iscommitted to the cause,” said Rima. “He gives me a lot of moral supportbut he doesn’t come face to face with voters.

“He just delivers leaflets and then leaves. It could be embarrassmentwhich stops him, I don’t know. Not everyone enjoys being questioned onpolicy detail.”

Rickman may have little direct political experience, but on stage andscreen he has played many authority figures. Last year he took the roleof Mark Antony in a West End production of Shakespeare’s Antony andCleopatra, and he was the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Hollywoodblockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

The other leading candidate for the Labour nomination is RobertAtkinson, leader of the party on Kensington and Chelsea council. Mr Portillo, theformer defence secretary and darling of the Tory right, is the frontrunner to become the Tory candidate.

His main rivals are Rupert Allason, the bouffant-haired former Torbay MPand spy writer, and Express columnist Peter Hitchens. The constituencyis one of the safest Tory seats in the country.

The party had a majority of more than 9,500 at the 1997 election. TheConservatives won 54 per cent of the vote and Labour came second with 28per cent.

Mr Portillo, a hard-line Eurosceptic, is coming under pressure fromWilliam Hague to moderate his position. Mr Hague wants to offer MrPortillo a prominent front-bench position, but first the Tory leaderwants him to drop his opposition to the single currency.The official partypolicy is to rule out entry only for the next two parliaments.