April 14 2014

I have been struck in recent days about three completely separate events and how they disprove the widely held views about our current political scene.

On Wednesday morning I read a press article prompted by the recent publication of a biography of Labour politician Roy Jenkins. Very often we complain that our politicians come from the ‘political classes’ moving from the study of politics or economics to a job with one of the political parties or an MP and then eventually becoming an MP themselves; we ask; ‘what do they know about life? Never had a proper job’ we say. A view that, in many cases, I subscribe to but as the article pointed out this is nothing new. Roy Jenkins himself was the son of a member of parliament so too was Winston Churchill and countless others. In the 19^th century it was the norm.

On the same day as I read the article drawing my attention to these political dynasties I attended the launch of a new publication called ‘The Party of Opportunity.’ This was compiled by my colleague David Amess the MP for Southend. West.

It features fourteen Conservative MPs, or fifteen if you include John Major who wrote the introduction, all from working-class backgrounds. Perhaps even more notable is the fact that he has already unearthed enough about the backgrounds of Tories to fill another three volumes one of which will include yours truly.

Four of the fourteen are ministers and two in the Cabinet – though when the booklet was launched on Wednesday morning the number was only one since Sajid Javid was only promoted to the Cabinet as the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport an hour or so later. Sajid is the son of a bus driver.      

The other Cabinet member featured is former miner and now Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin.

All of those featured were state educated and worked hard to achieve their present positions. I suspect that if were to read their profiles without indicating their Party labels you would be tempted to say ‘no they couldn’t possibly be Tories’ but the stereotypes will all have in our minds are so often not the reality. If you would like an electronic copy of the booklet please email me at martin.vickers.mp@parliament.uk

The third event was last Thursday during a debate when my colleague from the neighbouring constituency Edward Leigh spoke about how Parliament should go about attracting people from a wider variety of backgrounds, he said “we need to make this place more attractive and diverse. We have not yet succeeded in attracting as many working mothers to this place as we should have done.”

Edward is often portrayed as been ‘one of the old school, right wing and out of touch;’ clearly another piece of stereotyping.

Bringing all of this together what it shows is that, like all of the parties, the Conservatives need to do more to become wholly representative but forget the stereotypical Tory MP – lawyer, stockbroker, public school and the like – miner, electrician, fireman and the local comprehensive is equally the case. If anything we Conservatives have a more diverse parliamentary party than our opponents. 

One other event from last week was an opportunity to meet Dave McGuire from Cleethorpes who was receiving an award as a Neighbourhood Energy Champion helping and advising those who are affected by fuel poverty. Dave is yet another example of someone giving their own time to help their community. His award was well deserved.