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02
Nov
What's it like to... be an MP?
This is the second in a series of articles that will ask 'What's it like to...'. This week, we met former Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, who represented the constituency from 2010 to 2024.
We’ve all done it – watched the shenanigans in Parliament and cursed the MPs of all stripes who seem to be making such a hash of representing our interests. Lots of things get shouted at tellies up and down the land, but one of the most common is ‘they’re all just out for themselves’.
Andrew Jones is having none of it. But then, he wouldn’t – he was the Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough for 14 years and is now enjoying an extended break, having lost the seat last year.
In an exclusive interview, he told the Stray Ferret:
You don't put yourself forward for it without recognising that you're not choosing a career on the same criteria as other jobs.
In many cases, you're choosing a career that will be less secure, with far less privacy, probably less holiday – obviously everybody works all weekends, so it'll put pressure on all other areas of your life – and for many, a pay cut.
The motivation is something which is, I think, fairly common across all political parties, and that is a desire to make a difference and participate in the process.
Andrew Jones (right) with protestors at a demonstration in 2023.
The thing that spurred Mr Jones into the fray was, he says, Labour’s landslide general election victory in 1997:
I thought 'Goodness gracious'. The [Conservative] party had been hopeless, I wanted to play a part in getting it back on its feet again, so I thought, 'I'll give it a go'.
After a touch-and-go campaign, which he says he enjoyed, he woke up on polling day in 2010 knowing the result would be close, but cautiously confident of victory. It wasn’t a hunch shared by everyone.
He said:
I bumped into William Hague shortly after going down to Westminster, and he said, 'Oh, I didn't expect to see you here!'.
A narrow (1.9%) majority saw him head to London very soon after the count at Harrogate Convention Centre.
It's very, very quick. It is literally a couple of days. You have no time at all – and you also want to get on with stuff.
Arriving in Westminster
The historical significance of the place made an impression:
You walk into the building, often through Westminster Hall, which is the main entrance. That building was created by the son of William the Conqueror in the 1080s. The roof was raised in the 1390s by Richard II. Clerk of Works: Geoffrey Chaucer.
You walk in and you see statues and portraits and stuff, and you're aware of these things that have happened in British history, and the role of Parliament in British history.
I loved that side of it. I think it's really important, because if you're not motivated by it, struck by it, then you're in the wrong job.
Defra minister Robbie Moore and Andrew Jones.
The initiation into parliamentary life sounds not dissimilar to starting at a new school. The House authorities sort new MPs out with their email account “within minutes”, and then there’s a training course to ease newcomers into the place and familiarise them with the logistics and arcane procedures that will shape their lives for the next few years.
Mr Jones said:
The course is put on by the officers of the House, and it's geography [of Parliament], some of the procedures, some basic orientation.
Part of the course was actually run by senior politicians from both sides. So even though I was a Conservative Member of Parliament, it included a training course run by [Labour peer and former Leader of the House of Commons] Harriet Harman. It's open to everybody, and it's about how Parliament works.
Walking into the chamber
Once the groundwork is laid, it’s time to get stuck in, and the first time an MP sets foot in the chamber of the House of Commons is something they never forget.
He said:
You walk in and it feels small but intimidating. The first time it sits, it's lively, it's busy, it's got energy. And we were busy forming a coalition, so there were interesting times from that.
I remember being updated by David Cameron and George Osborne on how the negotiations were going to form a coalition.
So it was drama. Your first impression was of a big space – the whole of Parliament is enormous, at the hub of which is a small, exciting chamber, full of energy.
Once settled in – as at school – there are opportunities to make friends. Cynics might think they would be little more than allies, or ‘friends of convenience’, but says Mr Jones, real friendships do emerge:
You do make some very good friends there. But there's a difference between a colleague and a friend, and there is also a spectrum of places in between those two.
There are some people you just never see, and indeed at the end of the 2010-15 parliament there were some MPs I'd never met. You just think 'perhaps they're not very busy...'.
Andrew Jones MP speaking in a House of Commons debate on New Build Homes Standards: North Yorkshire.
Learning to prioritise
Anyone who’s ever watched any parliamentary proceedings in the House of Commons will no doubt have seen the chamber near-empty, echoing to the sound of one MP while a sprinkling of others look on. The obvious question is: where are they all? The answer, it turns out, is not that the Commons bar is full, but that they’re mostly out on other business.
Mr Jones said:
One thing you do learn quite quickly is you've got a lot of things going on at the same time in the House, so you'll have the chamber activity, but you'll also have debates in Westminster Hall.
There will be select committees operational, and there'll be all-party groups, and they'll all be happening at the same time, but you can't be in every place at the same time.
So you have to be very disciplined, and work out what it is you want to do, where you can add value, and prioritise your time accordingly. Because you also have to deal with the 1,000 pieces of correspondence that come in every week.
The key, he says, is stamina: “It is all about being a high-energy, relentless person."
In amongst all the late-night sittings, back-to-back meetings, nerve-shredding votes and constituency casework, there is always – as in every walk of British life – a good dose of humour.
Mr Jones singles out Labour’s Stephen Pound and Conservative William Hague as being particularly funny, but declines to expand:
There were lots of funny moments – but probably not too repeatable for the readers of the Ferret.
He describes these members as “chamber pullers”, but remembers with dread the “chamber emptiers”:
There are some people who are just monstrously boring! They’re time-thieves, but fortunately they're few and far between.
During his time in Parliament, Mr Jones served as a Treasury minister and as a junior transport minister – twice – posts that enabled him to put into action some of the plans he’d been clutching when he was first voted in.
Helping to realise those policies was, he says, very fulfilling, but there were also lots of lesser-known triumphs – smaller in some ways, but big in their own ways – that have also stayed with him:
Very shortly after starting [as an MP], I had a case which was supremely complicated, required urgent action, and resulted in a life absolutely transformed. You look back on things like that with a sense of great satisfaction.
Conservative Andrew Jones was Harrogate and Knaresborough's MP for 14 years.
All in all, it sounds to be a job like no other. So just what is it like to be an MP?
It is a fantastic privilege, open to very few people, and you must do your ultimate best to deliver for your constituents.
That is a very rewarding thing – to speak for your home area at the highest possible platform in the country is a wonderful thing. It's about doing, not talking.
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