Alan McGauley: Why Huhne’s prison humbling need not be a life sentence

So, what does the future hold for this previously high-flying politician and how possible is a return to the political big time?

There are several recent examples of disgraced politicians leaving prison after short sentences; six Westminster old boys went to prison in 2011 alone.

John Stonehouse, Jeffrey 
Archer and Jonathan Aitken 
have all served prison sentences before Huhne and have all emerged to different careers, rather than to politics, with varying degrees of success. If you’re an ex-Member of Parliament, prison is less likely to be the end of your working life but it is likely to be the end of your time at Westminster.

Chris Huhne will find it easier than the average ex-convict leaving prison for a number of reasons. For a start, he will not have to worry where the next 
crust will come from. He is a former financial journalist who went on to make a fortune working in the City – a multi-millionaire with an extensive property portfolio.

He owns a number of homes, including a seven-bedroom house in Clapham, South London, a former pub in Clerkenwell and five rental homes in Hampshire. His former wife, Vicky Pryce, claimed in the press that the disgraced ex-MP bought cheap shares in his father’s company Traffic Safety Systems, which supplies speed cameras and mobile CCTV to police forces, and then sold them for a huge profit when it was bought out by the AD Group in December 2003.

In addition Huhne will still have a small but significant number of supporters. So even if Nick Clegg doesn’t call round for tea, there will still be access to a number of politicians and high profile individuals.

What is likely to be Mr Huhne’s game plan? Clearly, a return as an elected position is dead in the water – he is no longer even 
a member of the Liberal Democrats as he resigned when he finally pleaded guilty. However his ambitions can be fulfilled in other ways.

Firstly, he needs to rehabilitate himself. That process began before he served a day at Her Majesty’s Pleasure with his fulsome apology aimed at trying to compensate for the fact that he had initially lied about his guilt and tried every legal route to prevent the trial taking place.

Nothing helps with rehabilitation quite like some charity work for a cause popular with the public. This should pave the way for opportunities as a political pundit particularly before or after the next election, discussing Nick Clegg’s future and that of Vince Cable as well as issues such as wind farms and sustainability. When inevitably 
the next politician is sent to prison, the former MP could also be in demand to provide tips on how to survive.

Eventually, the public will move on and Huhne’s misdeeds will be replaced by those of others, particularly as popular opinion on radio phone-ins was of a victimless crime that could happen to anyone rather than a government Minister being less than truthful and perverting the course of justice.

Then, of course, there is always the possibility of a stint on Have I Got News For You. Being lampooned by Ian Hislop didn’t do any harm to Boris Johnson or Neil and Christine Hamilton – he might even get to be the host. However you can take the media route too far and if he and his ex-wife get a call from Jeremy Kyle, it may be one show it would be wise to turn down.

A former Secretary of State for Energy will have many offers of positions in the global energy world and it is here, rather than in politics and the media, that his real future will probably lie.

He can be a much bigger player behind the closed doors of the corporate energy industry than he could probably be as a politician – and this could have ramifications for Yorkshire which wants to position itself at the fulcrum of green energy policy.

It will be important, whatever route is chosen, not to be seen in public as bitter or seeking revenge on those he feels have led to his downfall.

If all the attempts at rehabilitation and building a different career come to nothing, then he shouldn’t be downhearted – there’s always Celebrity Big Brother or joining Ukip.