Anstee: ‘It’s exciting not to fit the usual Tory boy stereotype’
Greater Manchester goes to the polls in its first ever mayoral election on May 4. But who exactly are the candidates standing on behalf of the main parties? Political editor Jennifer Williams spoke to the Conservative, Lib Dem, Labour, Ukip and Green hope
SEAN Anstee certainly ticks off a couple of Conservative caricatures: a former investment banker, a precocious high-flier. However, his route was not via Eton or the City of London, but from a council house in Partington, via the counter of his local bank.
Brought up by his mum Janet in a household fairly short on silver spoons, Anstee left Broadoak Comprehensive straight after his GCSEs.
At 16 – after deciding not to join the RAF – he was learning the ropes at the Timperley branch of Barclays.
Within six years he had gone from a £400-a-month apprenticeship to helping manage billions of pounds in investments at the Bank of New York Mellon.
In the interim he had done no formal qualifications other than an NVQ, although the bank then paid for him to do a degree.
By his late 20s, Anstee was running Trafford council as well.
He says that story tends to confound expectations.
“Often when I say to people that’s where I grew up, their instinctive reaction is ‘oh you’ve done well then, haven’t you,’” he says.
“And that says a lot about what people think about different bits of Greater Manchester and the fact where you’re from defines where you’re going, which I don’t think is the case.
“I think it’s perfectly plausible to say ‘why would people expect someone of my background just to do the natural thing, to do what you expect.’
“To give them something different, to challenge their perceptions, is quite an exciting thing to do.”
His upbringing did define one thing – his politics. Just not in the way some might expect.
Anstee joined the Conservative party at 15, in a Labour area when Labour were nationally on the upswing. It was Tory values of ‘determination, hard work, of making sure what you do is valued’ that attracted him, he says.
“My view of the Labour party – and it was a very Labour dominated area – was their solution to everything was to throw money at it.
“So they built a new health centre and expected everybody to be healthier as a result. But you wouldn’t be, actually, unless you do something quite profound about the life chances of the people there.”
Nevertheless, a Conservative candidate running in such a predominantly Labour area is going to face an uphill battle. Can he really emerge victorious from the long shadows of the Thatcher years and austerity measures?
“It is true to say there is still much to be done,” Anstee admits.
“Many of the values I hold are values I think speak to many in Greater Manchester, but often when associated with Conservatism may cast a doubt.”
It is perhaps a tacit recognition that there remains a battle to detoxify the Tories here. This election, he believes, is an opportunity to do that.
In spite of wanting to see a Tory renaissance in Greater Manchester, Anstee is not shy of praising Labour where he feels praise is due.
Asked who his political hero is, he is stumped, before picking a Labour figure – Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese. “I don’t mind saying this,” he says. “A local politician who I think has an insane ability to take an argument, and de-construct it and reconstruct it, is Richard.
“I don’t really care who I work with so long as we do the right thing and I think where party politics comes into this is – well, I don’t have a choice.”
Anstee is happily married to husband Thomas, a teacher, with whom he tied the knot in 2010. He came out at the age of around 16.
Ask him whether it has ever caused any problems and he pauses, before looking amazed at his own answer. “No! It’s one of the things where you might think that it would, but it’s just been... I just try and get people to like who I am. So I’m not a gay politician. I’m just a politician who happens to be gay.” Whether Anstee can build the Conservative party’s credibility in the region at this election remains to be seen. But he is determined to enjoy the ride and, along the way, disrupt a few preconceptions. “I think people might have this stereotype of a silvertongued Tory boy. I quite like not to be the stereotype, to challenge the stereotype,” Anstee says. “Why would you want to conform to the norm? We don’t. We don’t do that here.”
I think people might have this stereotype of a silver-tongued Tory boy. I quite like not to be the stereotype Sean Anstee