I am so glad a plumber has been elected. Now let's rebuild parliament from the foundations

Practitioners of trades are usually only invited into parliament to fix pipes, patch roofs or some such. Yet because of the upset in British politics Hannah Spencer, plumber and recent recipient of a plastering certificate, won the Gorton and Denton by-election. So we now have a tradesperson who before being elected was busying herself as a small businesswoman plying her trade.   

Over the decades trade unionists have been one of the pools for Labour to draw upon as MPs. Top trade unionists have been ushered into the House of Lords. But a tradesperson, someone who hasn’t climbed up the greasy pole of union politics, is, as far as I can remember, a first. Admittedly Spencer was a local councillor and Greens spokesperson for migration and refugee support, so she is not your average plumber. But near enough.  

Alan Johnson, former home secretary and holder of other ministerial appointments, started his working life as a postman, but climbed up the ranks. To shop steward and on into union prominence, and there was able to stand for parliament and win. And then to become a government minister.  

But straight off the frontline of work, and then into parliament, needs to be savoured. Does this for instance herald a world of steel erectors, heating and ventilating engineers, printers, painters and decorators standing for election and getting into the House of Commons? And then maybe a scaffolder or two for the House of Lords? Of course there have been top doctors, and even top nurses, in both Houses of Parliament; but an ordinary nurse? Or a hospital porter?  

Spencer may be as rare as hens’ teeth, and remain so. The onslaught of trade into parliament is not happening any time soon. Of course there are many tradespeople in parliament; but they are trying to fix the cables, pipes, plasterwork and roof of this crumbling palace of Victorianism.

And sometime soon parliament’s members will have to decide how do they address the collapse of the fabric, only held back right now by expensive stopgap actions. Tradesmen keep the place standing and limit a dangerous collapse. Parliament is falling apart: perhaps Spencer can do a few nightshifts to help the stopgappism necessary to hold the place up.   

But it is not just the fabric of parliament that is falling to pieces. The injuries suffered by the leading parties who have tended to follow each other in government over the decades are evident in Spencer’s election. The Greens, but one MP for a while, look as though – like Reform – they are becoming the beneficiaries of the fall in popularity of the main parties.

Spencer will be joined by others who the electorate will rally to. Why? Because politics has increasingly been seen as inept when it comes to representing the electorate in the course of their daily lives. They feel let down, and Reform and the Greens are flourishing in this new climate of dissatisfaction.  

One does hope that the incumbents in government will get on with returning us to stability. Will cure the NHS of its ailments. Will not continue to make a mockery of our so-called defence capability. Will build the houses and put up flood defences in all of the vulnerable parts of the UK. Will get our children off their devices and out of a dumbing-down of their finest human feelings. Will make public life liveable again. Will make honesty return to politics and punish those who made so much money out of Covid by providing shite PPE that didn’t do the job.  

I believe that if Starmer’s government stopped pretending that it had all the answers, stopped giving you the usual ‘poli-talk’ when you were looking for honest answers and not flannel, then we might begin to get somewhere. The problem with governments is they have to pretend that they have all the answers and it stops us believing in them.

Read more:

• A new kind of politics is coming our way
• Prime minister is a job for the odd fishes
• I got a copy of the Beveridge Report for my 80th birthday. Every government minister should read it

And it has got even worse in the last 10 years, since Brexit. We have had politicians of all persuasions hiding behind promises and an inability to face up to the crisis that is falling upon us. Belief in the big parties has shrunk and others are taking up the slack. And what is most worrying is that they themselves will be no nearer giving correctives to the economy and to society as a whole than the present and recent incumbents.  

My own particular, ever-present hang-up is the inability of any government to make any more than a dent in the poverty figures. The minister in the Lords can say to me that Labour is going to get a record number of children – up to 550,000 – out of poverty by 2030, and that that is something to be proud of. Of course not referring to, or addressing, the other four million that are left inheriting the poverty of their parents. Condemnation to a life of emptiness is all that is promised them.  

I am so glad a plumber has come to join the Houses of Parliament. A working person. It makes a refreshing change from political researchers, communication specialists, trade union officials, and all of the plethora of people who have brought us to the demise of politics that we are now living through. Not to forget estate agents.  

We, though, need to rebuild parliament from the bottom up; both its fabric and its inability to rise above stopgaps, false hopes, poverty and the injury to our hearts and minds.  

John Bird is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Big Issue. Read more of his words from our archive.

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