The People’s Politician? Gavin Shuker, Part Two.

A continuation of the last post on the blog, click here to read the first part!

Lisa: A lot of the students we asked today said they didn’t know your vote on gay marriage.
Ellie: Yes, they asked ‘ask him why he said yes’, ‘ask him why he said no’. How did you vote?
I felt I couldn’t support the legislation as it was for a very simple reason, which is we’re signatories to the European Court of Human Rights, and my read of the legislation says it would make it more likely for a successful challenge for religious institutions being forced to marry. Any individuals could go through. I went from the starting point of, why would you not want to extend rights to every group? And I come to the position that is; it would be ironic that you would abridge the rights of religious institutions and individuals to extend them in another group. That’s a very difficult thing to square off. So I took the view that to not vote for the legislation was the right way through. That’s a bit of a nightmare because obviously it frustrates everyone. The hundreds of people that got in touch with me and said I want you to vote against this legislation. The handful- honestly the handful- who got in touch with me and said I want to vote for it. And ultimately this is politics right? You don’t do what is always popular, you do what you think is right in that situation. I appreciate it isn’t the right situation and it looks like you’re sitting on the fence. But for me, the right decision I felt to make was to say I’ll start from the position that if I can vote for this I will and I feel like I can’t, so I’m abstaining on the legislation. It’ll go through with a massive majority, go through to the Lords and probably get picked apart but it will be passed into legislation.

Advertisements

The People’s Politician? Gavin Shuker

Q:How did you become an MP after studying for your degree at Cambridge?
Oh my goodness, so let’s go back to when I was your age, so, grew up in Luton and went to school here – Icknield – and went to Sixth form, studied Politics and thought it was quite interesting and really enjoyed it at A-Level. I thought I’d go on to study it at degree, not because I wanted to become a politician actually, which I know sounds strange, but genuinely I really enjoyed it and through a weird twist of nature I managed to get a place in Cambridge. I think if I were to apply now I don’t think I would get in, it is so much harder for you guys.

Aysegul: Yeah, these two are Oxbridge rejects.
Oh wow, well if it’s any consolation, I wouldn’t now either. Do you know where you want to go?
Ellie: Well I’m planning to go to Kings in London.
Lisa: York.
Aysegul: Warwick.
I applied to Warwick as well – didn’t get in but yes, sorry I need to answer the questions don’t I? – I moved to Cambridge and worked for a local church for three years and then moved back here in 2006. When I moved back lots of my friends went off to be consultants and bankers and work in big business. That’s a great thing to do, don’t get me wrong, but I wanted to move back to Luton and I think one of the biggest problems we have is a lot of our talented people move away and we never seem them again and I would like to see more people come back here. I moved back here, I worked for a local church and joined the Labour party on the same day I moved back.