A life apart

Frank Field was given a standing ovation when he won The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year award two weeks ago. Normally there’s polite applause, but he is the hero of the current clash between the Corbynistas and what used to be the Labour party. His local party in Birkenhead has threatened to deselect him so he plans to stand as an Independent next time, and he said in his acceptance speech: ‘If I’m successful in winning the seat again, then in some small way, as with Brexit, we will begin to change British politics.’

I met him in Portcullis House at the height of the Brexit furore when all the commentators were saying they had never known such cliffhanging times. But he is 76 and has been the MP for Birkenhead for almost 40 years, so he has been through previous cliffhangers.

‘But it’s different,’ he says, ‘because there’s clearly a lot of plotting going on but this place is empty. When Mrs Thatcher’s downfall was coming, and we were all still crammed into the Commons, you could see the plotters forming groups, huddling in the tearooms, you could see who put their arms round Heseltine, whereas it’s been like a funeral parlour here while all this is going on. It’s because of the iPhone. They’re all texting each other I imagine. But it’s changed the nature of dagger politics, of changing leaders.’

Does he feel sorry for Theresa May? ‘I don’t know how she gets up in the morning. I mean she’s seriously ill with diabetes and yesterday she was on her feet for three hours. I would expect her to at least bring a ham sandwich. And with all the Tory backbenchers going for her, I’ve never seen the PM having to put up with that sort of thing before. They were saying the most terrible things, and she was replying as if they’d asked what the weather was like.