What’s up in Westminster?

EACH WEEK A FEMALE MP GIVES US THE INSIDER VIEW FROM PARLIAMENT

‘We need people of all ages in Parliament’

‘I want to represent our burning planet and my generation, who are left to foot the bill’

Nadia Whittome, the 23-year-old Labour MP for Nottingham East, on being the ‘baby of the House’, and why we need people her age in Parliament

When I’m not in Westminster, I live at home with my mum; she’s proud of my job, but no prouder of me than she is of my brother, who is a bricklayer. Being an MP probably isn’t what she’d have chosen for me, as you’re right in the lion’s den. All anyone wants to focus on is my age. People have asked whether I’ve even had a proper job and I say, ‘How do you think I’ve been feeding myself ?’ I dropped out of Nottingham University because I couldn’t afford not to work, and consider my previous jobs as a care worker and a hate-crime project worker as worthy experience for where I am now.

I still go out clubbing but it’s different to how it was before I was an MP; now people recognise me around Nottingham and ask me questions. I’m working on keeping my private life separate from my public life, but I’m happy to talk politics when people approach me. I want to be discussing policy and what I’ll do in Westminster.

I came to Parliament to represent my constituency, but also to represent our burning planet and my generation, who are left to foot the bill and live with it. If we don’t act urgently on the climate emergency, we won’t have anywhere left to live. The Government has set a target to decarbonise by 2050, but that’s too late – and research shows they’re not even on track to meet it. We need to reduce our carbon emissions by 20% every year; that’s non-negotiable.

We need a Green New Deal – meaning a zero-carbon society and investment on a post-war scale in technology, infrastructure and people – and that’s the only way we’ll meet the climate challenges. I also want to change the school curriculum, so the ecological crisis is included as a priority. We need people of all ages in Parliament because we bring different life experiences and perspectives that haven’t been represented until now. For example, a lot of people my age don’t want to have children because of the climate crisis.

We’re in the middle of a culture war where young people seem to be criticised for everything they do; we’ve seen it with Brexit, Harry and Meghan and, unbelievably, around the climate. I’m sick of people pitting older and younger people against each other when what we really need to do is come together and implement a Green New Deal so this planet has a future.