White van Tory who forced cut in fuel duty
EACH morning and evening in the election campaign, Robert Halfon sat by the roadside and waved signs at motorists driving though his Harlow constituency.
His messages – ‘Fighting for a strong NHS’ and ‘Championing jobs and apprenticeships’ – must have got through because he increased his majority from 4,925 to 8,350.
‘People know how much I love Harlow,’ says the newly-appointed Cabinet minister without portfolio and Tory deputy chairman. His unusual tactics are testament to a life with disability.
Born with spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, the 46-year- old walks with crutches, making it exhausting for him to canvass door to door.
As an MP, he has run several high-profile campaigns, notably Petrol Promise, which called on the Government to cut motoring costs. By the end of the last parliament, he had helped convince George Osborne to scrap or delay each of his planned fuel duty hikes.
Mr Halfon, who was named Campaigning MP of the Year at the 2013 Spectator magazine Awards, has also led a charge against hospital car parking charges.
His political passions include increasing and improving apprenticeship opportunities.
He featured prominently in an episode of the TV documentary series Inside the Commons earlier this year where he was shown working hard on the hospital parking fees issue.
He was filmed as Mr Osborne told him: ‘I want you to be my eyes and ears.’
Mr Halfon’s father fled Libya in the early days of the Gaddafi regime, settled with his Jewish family in north London and ran a fruit and vegetable wholesalers. The young Robert was educated at fee-paying Highgate School – and had Margaret Thatcher’s signature on his wall as a teenager.
Already active in the Conservative Party by the time he was in the sixth form, Mr Halfon studied politics at Exeter, where he became chairman of the university’s conservatives.
He worked for a number of Tory MPs before winning his Essex seat at the third attempt in 2010.
An advocate of what he calls ‘ white van conservatism’, he dislikes the phrase blue-collar Tory, and believes his should be the party ‘of the ladder’ – of aspiration and social mobility.
Mr Halfon, who drives a Ford Transit and has a Brazilian girlfriend, lists his interests as collecting watches, eating curries and watching Chelsea FC. On Facebook, he cites Bob Dylan as his favourite musician.
A Downing Street source said last night: ‘The PM launched the party manifesto saying we are the real party of working people. Robert is associated with blue-collar conservatism – and you can expect that to be a major theme of this Government.’
‘Aspiration and social mobility’