Voters of Corby: you can make my parliamentary dream come true

Thursday, 20th November 2008

Louise Bagshawe on how an aspiring MP sees the House of Commons

The relationship between the House of Commons and a parliamentary candidate is an odd one. I am standing for the Conservatives in a marginal seat; Labour holds Corby & East Northants with a majority of 1,500, and the swing we need to take it is 1.8 per cent. On present polling, that looks eminently do-able. But things never seem that way when you are the candidate on the ground. We are working flat out in Corby, having hand-delivered 20,000 surveys this summer; we are about to start a fresh campaign for the county and European elections, which will hit key parts of the seat. Nonetheless, Parliament itself, both the physical building and the idea of sitting as a Member, is something I keep at the back of my mind, at a respectful distance. It seems presumptuous to go any further than contemplating the vague possibility of being there. There is that very British fear of tempting fate.

As a girl fascinated by politics from an early age, I always wanted to go inside the House of Commons, physically, but when I lived in London, back in my early twenties, the queues always defeated me. It was one of those things, like seeing the Crown Jewels, that you want to do but never get around to.

The first time I went into the building was in 2004. I had given a speech at the Oxford Union on conservatism in a debate where Oliver Letwin, then shadow chancellor, was the guest of honour. I had decided then that, notwithstanding the fact that my early books (available to this day in all good bookshops) were pretty racy, the world had moved on and I might, just possibly, be able to stand for the Tories for Parliament. Hearing that Mr Letwin would be at the debate, it seemed to me that opportunity was knocking and I had a chance that might never come again. I wrote the speech and practiced it incessantly. It was proto-Cameroon stuff; it started with an admission that I’d joined the Labour party in 1996 and then went on to talk about how they had betrayed me and everyone else that believed in Blair’s promise. I called the Tories the new party of social justice. The speech went down well and Mr Letwin invited me to come and see him at the House of Commons, where he would give me some advice. It is impossible to describe how thrilling this was. The shadow chancellor! At the House of Commons!

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