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For most young people, receiving a letter from Oxford University confirming their whereabouts will be one of the happiest moments in their lives.
Not so for Labour’s Lucy Powell.
“When I got the offer, I cried because I knew I had to go and I didn’t want to go,” says the House of Commons shadow leader.
“At first I thought, “Yeah, I guess I’ll just apply.” But what I really hated was when I went to the open day before I got the offer.”
The 17-year-old Manchester Comprehensive graduate spent “most weekends” at the Hacienda club, but the “suffocating environment” at Oxford University’s Somerville College didn’t suit her.
Powell learned that his wealthy Oxford contemporaries had already received “an education well beyond A-levels” and was able to write 25 pages on quantum mechanics without “parallel teaching”. After being given a writing assignment, he realized that Oxford University was not for him. .
“Harry potter “It wasn’t written at the time, but it was like Hogwarts,” she added. “Everyone else there was like, ‘I’m booked for an internship.'” F.T.” or “I have an internship lined up at my father’s law firm.”
“I worked part-time at Inmans and did pretty well in my A-levels,” said the newspaper, which held near-legendary status around its Didsbury home until it closed in 2015 after 85 years. She talks about retailers, tobacco shops and stationery shops.
In her second year, she transferred to King’s College in London, where she excelled, eventually earning a first-class degree and a thorough understanding of quantum mechanics.
Mentioning haciendas always leads to the following question: Was she participating in the less legitimate elements of her 1990s club culture?
“I was living in that era,” she says. It’s not as simple an answer as Michael Gove admitting he wished he hadn’t taken cocaine when he was a young journalist, but it’s straightforward enough.
After completing his studies, it wasn’t long before Powell entered politics, working at Labor headquarters in Milbank in the run-up to the 1997 election.
She may have fled Hogwarts, but now as Leader of the House of Commons, responsible for ensuring the government’s legislative agenda, she hopes to perform some magic after the election.
Mr Powell will give a speech on Tuesday about how Labor will transform the workings of Parliament, setting out how Labor will improve the overall level of debate, diversity and discipline in the House of Commons in government. It is planned.
She is also keen to make it easier to suspend lawmakers accused of violent or sex-related crimes. This is exactly the kind of crime for which Natalie Elphike’s ex-husband Charlie, who defected from the Conservative Party, was convicted.
On Monday, MPs are voting on whether MPs accused by police of such crimes should be automatically suspended from parliament.
Mr Powell would go a step further and introduce suspensions immediately after arrests.
“Currently, members of Congress who have been arrested or charged with serious sexual or violent offenses are still members of parliament and can still vote and participate in parliamentary elections.
“We rely very much on informal arrangements, where the whips are being talked about.” [to] Tell your MPs not to participate in a parliamentary state in such a situation.
“A motion has been tabled in the House of Commons to change this, and what it proposes is that suspension will be triggered if someone is charged with a serious sexual or violent offence.
“However, I believe that an arrest is more appropriate in terms of ensuring safety and protection, as is commonly done in other workplaces.”
Her boss, Sir Keir Starmer, has angered many in the Labor Party by embracing former right-wing Tory Elphike, who defected last week. Her critics say she was too supportive of her then-husband, who was also a councilor in her Dover constituency, when he was accused of sex crimes against two staff members. claims.
The couple divorced after his conviction, and Ms Elfike last week apologized for her comments at the time.
So is Elphike the right candidate for the Labor Party?
Like many of his frontbench colleagues, Powell had no idea until the last minute that Elphike would cross the house. prime minister’s question Last Wednesday, she said that while she did not fully support asylum, she was clear of the doubt, at least for now.
“It takes a lot of courage to walk away from all your friends and colleagues and experience all the grief that comes with walking across the floor of the House of Commons in that way.
“So if Natalie made that decision in her head and thought it through to become a Labor MP, I’m going to judge that for now and take her at face value. is.”
Mr. Powell was talking about I There was no further comment last Friday on claims made over the weekend that Ms Elphike lobbied the Lord Chancellor over her husband’s arrest and subsequent conviction on sexual assault charges in 2020.
In addition, in the wake of the Elphike scandal, some in the Labor Party are asking why veteran Labor MP Diane Abbott is still being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks, even though it has been a year since she apologized. Some have questioned whether he has been under the Labor Party’s whip.
Mr. Powell is more direct about this.
“Of course I would like to see Diane back in the Labor Party,” she said. “I want as many people as possible to become Labor MPs. But these are issues that the leader and the Labor Party will deal with and there is a process to deal with them.”
But she will not welcome the return to the party of Jeremy Corbyn, who has not retracted comments that Labor considers anti-Semitic.
In his speech at the Institute of Government, Mr Powell will outline how Labor will seek to improve working conditions in parliament and increase diversity in parliament.
“We would like to see a more diverse Congress, more women, people representing different regions of the country, different backgrounds, etc.
“I think we’ll see a much more diverse Congress after the next election.”
Ms Powell, who holds one of the safest seats among MPs for Manchester Central, will not have to worry about returning to the House of Commons after the election, and if Labor can secure a majority, large or small, she will The role will be to prepare new seats. Hers was the government’s first King’s Speech and set out its first legislative agenda since the then Queen’s Speech in November 2009.
All members of the shadow cabinet are currently trying to prioritize their agenda, but Mr Powell said that even if the party had an agenda, it would not be able to get its “five-point mission” through both houses of parliament. recognizes the need to take a “whole-of-parliamentary approach”. They will have a majority in the House of Commons but a minority in the Lords.
These include boosting housebuilding and restoring economic stability, setting up a publicly owned Great British Energy to invest in clean energy to provide energy security for the UK, and reducing NHS waiting lists. These include paying overtime to doctors and nurses and increasing the number of neighborhood police stations by 13,000. We are also introducing free school breakfast clubs and higher quality teaching with more specialist maths and science teachers.
Mr Powell did not elaborate on the content of Labour’s first King’s Speech, but there is no doubt that these five will be.
“What we are working on is what we need to do early on to achieve our mission and deliver on the promises and goals and commitments that we have made.
“How do we do that? How do we make sure that this policy makes good progress throughout Congress?
“We remain the third largest party in the House of Lords, so we have to take a whole-of-parliament approach, but we also have good legislation that actually works and delivers what we want. “I’d like to see it.’ It’s not something that we have to go back and change later, and it’s not something that we’re staggering through in Congress because we haven’t thought through all the issues,” she said.
One of the policy areas Labor has said it will scrap is the government’s controversial “Stop the Boat” expulsion scheme for illegal migrants crossing the Rwanda Strait.
Last Friday, Sir Keir Starmer set out Labour’s plans to “replace” the Rwanda plan, replacing it with a Border Force command to crack down on criminal gangs making millions on the dangerous journey from France. installed.
However, this does not appear to be confirmation that Labor will repeal the Rwanda Act, with Mr Powell suggesting Labor may not need to do so.
“We are not going to operate the Rwanda policy,” she said, hinting that it may remain in law but simply not be implemented.
“We’re looking into it, yes,” she added. “But we don’t do it because we don’t think it will work.”