A VERY PUBLIC SACKING
LOSING YOUR SEAT AT A GENERAL ELECTION MUST BE SHOCKING - AND VERY VISIBLE. JO PLATT, WHO LOST THE FORMER ROCK-SOLID LABOUR SEAT OF LEIGH, REVEALS THE HURT
“IT’S probably the most public sacking you could have,” explains the former MP Jo Platt.
“For the first few days you’re in shock, then there are tears and there’s also the anger and blaming yourself.”
It’s been a rollercoaster fortnight for the 46-year-old after losing her seat in the former mining town of Leigh at the general election.
A Labour heartland for almost 100 years, the news that Conservative James Grundy had taken it by 1,965 votes sent shockwaves across the country.
For Ms Platt, it was especially traumatic. She faced the humiliation of losing in the public glare and being the first Labour candidate to fail to win Leigh since 1918.
But she wasn’t the only one to experience a humbling defeat as fellow Labour MPs toppled like dominoes across the country.
In Greater Manchester alone, Bury North, Bury South, Heywood and Middleton and Bolton North East also changed hands, leaving the ousted MPs jobless and facing an uncertain future.
Ms Platt, must now forge a new path. For her, it’s like getting the sack and being the boss of a business that’s gone bust before Christmas, all rolled into one.
She has no idea what her next job will be. “It’s been a long time since I had normal job so now I’m like ‘oh gosh, I have to go out into the real world’”, Ms Platt said.
“If I’m applying to businesses or whatever I want to do, how do they look at an MP?” She is about to about find out.
As Parliament returns to work, those in Ms Platt’s position must figure out how they’re going to continue providing for their families.
The House Of Commons team offers careers advice to MPs who are leaving the chamber.
The service, while not standard, is available on request. The Association of Former Members of Parliament, formed in 2001, now has
420 members. But when an MP loses their seat, the impact stretches beyond just them.
To help an MP perform their job and carry out casework for constituents, they require a team of staff.
Losing your seat means making them redundant, a task Ms Platt has found distressing in the build-up to Christmas.
“Letting them go has been the hardest part because they have mortgages and kids,” she said. “On the day of the election I looked at the faces of people working on the campaign and we all knew,” she said.
“At the count we were just going through the motions, although we still went in with a bit of hope.” She does not hold back in her assessment of the scale of the defeat, describing it as ‘catastrophic.’ Coming to terms with it all has been tough and she likens it to ‘a period of mourning.’
“I’m only just sitting down to think about
what I’m going to do next,” said Ms Platt.” There’s so many things I’m having to get to grips with.”
A single mum-of-two, Ms Platt was far from the stereotype of a privileged MP when she was elected two-and-a-half years ago.
After leaving a career in marketing to raise her young children, she juggled part-time jobs and college study before being elected as a local councillor for Astley and Mosley Common in 2012.
In 2017, she was put forward to replace Andy Burnham as the Labour candidate in the then safe Labour seat of Leigh.
She won with a comfortable majority of just under 10,000 and was afforded the honour of representing her hometown in Parliament.
The halls of Westminster were a world away from what she was used to.
But she took to it quickly and, in July 2018, just over a year after becoming an MP, Ms Platt
was appointed a shadow cabinet minister with responsibility for cybersecurity.
She said: “People think MPs live in a castle and are uber-privileged, but I came into Parliament as a single mum struggling to make ends meet. I was living the life most people in places like Leigh do and then you are catapulted into all of that.”
Two years on, she’s been brought back down to earth with a bump.
Then there’s the impact on the MP’s own family.
Ms Platt says her two children, aged 14 and 17, are also worried for the future.
She received a phone call from her eldest son asking to be picked up from college after he had become upset at tweets he had seen about his mum.
“It’s the first time he’s spoken to me about it,” she said. “I’ve got to be strong for them though, and tell them it’s going to be okay.”