The two MPs who are already being tipped for the top
IT IS a plot straight out of the Jeffrey Archer novel Kane And Abel. Two fiercely ambitious men from different sides of the tracks find their lives are uncannily intertwined as they fight their way to the top.
The careers of Tory Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb and Labour frontbencher Owen Smith have followed strikingly similar paths. Today’s local election results and the uncertainty surrounding the EU referendum are fuelling leadership chatter in Labour and Tory ranks. In their respective parties Mr Crabb, 43, and Mr Smith, 46, are talked about as potential contenders in the coming succession battles.
Both MPs represent Welsh constituencies where they have strong local roots, have squared up as opposing frontbench spokesmen on Welsh issues and are now at loggerheads on the Work and Pensions brief. Colleagues are wondering whether their regular head- to- head clashes over the Commons floor could soon be taking place at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Of the two MPs it is the Conservative who came from the most underprivileged background. Mr Crabb and his two brothers were raised by a single mother on a council estate in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.
His mother separated from his violent father when he was eight. His experience of seeing her gradual struggle from benefits dependency to selfreliance has been a strong influence on his commitment to tackling unemployment and deprivation. Seeing the way his neighbourhood was transformed by the reforms of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s inspired him to join her party.
THE socialist Mr Smith had a relatively comfortable middle- class upbringing in South Wales. He developed pragmatic Left- ofcentre views that are a world away from the Marxist ideology of Jeremy Corbyn’s ruling Labour clique.
Unlike many clone MPs, neither Mr Smith nor Mr Crabb attended Oxbridge or went into backroom political adviser jobs within Westminster straight from university. They built successful business careers before entering politics: Mr Smith in the pharmaceutical industry after a spell as a BBC journalist