MPs have to keep the common touch
WITH the Labour Party Conference under way, I have been thinking a lot about the Labour Party and who that group of people are who simply go by the label "MP".
I have especially been thinking about who Labour MPs are. With the party struggling in the polls and failing to come up with the policies that connect with people part of the problem seems to be that those on the front benches don't really represent the whole make up of our society. When people can't understand the real needs and concerns of large parts of the electorate – when they haven't really experienced or encountered the kind of lives people live – then there is a huge danger of entirely disconnecting with voters.
For example, the number of Members of Parliament elected in 2005 who have worked in manual jobs is low. Around 38 MPs in Parliament come from traditional working class, manual worker backgrounds (35 of them are in the Labour Party). Since 1987 the number has about halved. There are around 72 barristers/solicitors alone, 372 MPs from professional backgrounds. While men from manual or unskilled backgrounds are under represented, working class women are barely represented in Parliament at all. 87 of the MPs elected in 2005 came straight from a political or political party background - working their way through the internal party systems and not through the kind of jobs the majority of the population turn up to every day.
Looking at education we see that around 18 per cent of Labour MPs elected in 2005 went to fee paying schools. Only eight per cent of the population, in general, go to fee paying schools so that group is massively over-represented. If you look at both parties' frontbenches the proportion is much higher. Incidentally, though, the number of Tory MPs who went to fee paying schools is, as you would expect, massively higher at around 60 per cent.
This is not to say that there is no place in Parliament for lawyers or people who have dedicated their life's work to a party but there must also be room for people who have day-to-day experience with trying to get by, of working for an employment agency where their job could disappear the very next day and of having to put in overtime to make sure there is enough money to put food on the table and keep the heating on.
We must ensure that people who have lived by the comprehensive education system, both because they believe in it and because for them there was no alternative, are well represented in the ranks of the Labour Party. There must be room for people who chose different educational routes, or not to pursue education but to enter the working world. Getting a degree is worthwhile and advances the knowledge and career prospects of those who take one but it is not for everyone.
I worked as a plumber for many years before I entered politics and the experiences I had in my everyday life, in the people I met and worked with, have and continue to influence my outlook on life. If the Labour Party wants to connect with voters it must have MPs who know the situations their constituents and others across the country are in. This is not to say only working class people should go and be MPs but we need a mixture of ideas, backgrounds and experiences to intrinsically know and understand the whole electorate.
The Labour Party must take this challenge by helping people who want to be MPs understand the process, by giving training to people who want it and by offering financial support in order to pursue such an ambition. We need to draw more people into the political process who might otherwise not contemplate it – this is not an easy task but it is a necessity if the Labour Party is to represent the whole country and people in this area.
If you would like to get in touch about any of the issues raised here email JTrickett@jontrickett.org.uk
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Weather for Wakefield
Thursday 24 May 2012
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