‘The first cuts we need to make are to swearing’
For the last two years, “parliamentary arithmetic” has become one of the most commonly uttered phrases in Westminster, often by ministers excusing an inability, or unwillingness, to drive particular changes through the Commons.
As Leader of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom saw the difficulties caused by Theresa May’s slender majority at close quarters, and now that experience will act as a guiding principle in her leadership manifesto.
Bold tax-cutting pledges made by other candidates are, she suggests, fanciful, at a time when such measures could easily be blocked by a coalition of opposition parties and rebel Conservatives.
“The point about tax is that we’re in a hung parliament,” the former City minister warns in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.
Changes to current rates of tax would be “very difficult” and essentially “restricted to things that many opposition MPs would also like to see”.
“Colleagues might say to you, we’re going to do this and do that, but they won’t get it through Parliament, I can absolutely assure you of that.”
Changes that could and should be introduced now, she says, include measures to better support small businesses “to become the big brands of tomorrow”.
“We’ve had many years where small businesses come up with a great idea, and then end up selling out to, quite often international, investors or private equity firms,” says Mrs Leadsom, who was a senior executive at Barclays before becoming an MP.
“What I’d like to do is put in place measures, possibly through the British Business Bank [the state-owned institution funding loans], to provide both the equity finance and the better loan finance for companies to be able to grow intrinsically.”
Mrs Leadsom also wants to help trigger greater investment in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Unveiling her manifesto this week, Mrs Leadsom will separately pledge to overhaul the current tuition fees system, adopting several of the proposals outlined by a major review of post-18 education commissioned by Mrs May.
“I have particular concerns about the time at which interest starts being charged, which is when you’ve just started out at university,” she says.
“You see the interest charges going up every day that you’re learning, so you can’t possibly be earning. I think that’s a problem.
“But more importantly, I’d like to see the tuition fee scheme expanded … so that you could receive a loan for a degree, for a two-year degree, for a higher level apprenticeship, for specific skills training as opposed to academic learning, but also really importantly, I think young people should be able to gain access to finance if they want to start a business. So make it much more focused on the different ambitions and aspirations that young people have.”
Another element of Mrs Leadsom’s offering to young people is a proposed new scheme to help those paying high rents, while on a “reasonable income”, to buy a property instead.
“I would like to pilot a governmentled scheme, alongside Help to Buy, to offer a loan to young people on a reasonable income to be able to pay the deposit on a new home, and then swap their high rents for a mortgage and actually have a place of their own.”
In order to increase supply of affordable homes for the scheme, a government led by Mrs Leadsom would allow authorities to use plots of land currently omitted from local plans, which identify where new homes can be built.
“It obviously needs to be a suitable site, but not one that would be up for grabs to developers, that way keeping the land price lower,” she says.
Mrs Leadsom’s manifesto will also include an “older people’s offer” – backing for a cross-party commission to agree plans to fund the rising cost of social care in the long term. Last year Mrs May faced calls from almost 100 MPs for such a panel to help devise a solution that all of the main parties could support – ensuring any necessary legislation would receive sufficient support in the Commons and would not be unpicked by future governments.
Now Mrs Leadsom says she agrees. “With the parliamentary arithmetic, it seems to me the right thing to do is to have a cross-party commission that would effectively devise what the new scheme for social care should be by 2021 [the next scheduled general election], in order that the key parties can have the same policy in their manifestos. I think that’s vital, because what we don’t want is social care to be a political football.”
The spiralling cost of social care needs to be tackled “once and for all” and “it’s right that all parties sign up to it so that it’s not constantly changing”.
Last summer, weeks after two of her Brexiteer colleagues resigned from the Cabinet, Mrs Leadsom was appointed to chair a new government panel aimed at reviewing the support available to families in the period from conception to a child turning two.
The work of the “early years” panel has led her to the conclusion that the current scheme, offering up to 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds, should be reformed to allow its use at an earlier stage.
“In a cost neutral way I would simply make that flexible for parents because very often parents want to perhaps go back to work after six months or a year, and they might want childcare at that point and not wait until the child is three,” says the 56-year-old, who is married to Ben, a businessman, and has two grown-up sons along with a teenage daughter.
With one of the smallest numbers of declared supporters, Mrs Leadsom is an outsider in the race to succeed Mrs May – a far cry from the 2016 campaign when she and the current Prime Minister were the final two candidates for the job.
She insists, however, that she has the support to compete, and that it is her experience of handling a hung Parliament as Leader of the Commons that gives her the edge on the other candidates, along with her plans for a “managed” no-deal exit from the EU at the end of October if Brussels refuses to compromise on Mrs May’s deal.
Mrs Leadsom has “great regard” for all 10 of the other leadership contenders. But asked whether she considers swearing appropriate in such a campaign, following controversy over choice words used by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary as part of his pitch, she states: “Like anyone I can, in jest or in frustration, occasionally swear … In public discourse I want to set a good example.
“I think there’s far too much aggressive public discourse, both in social media and in the public generally. And I think it’s for us as politicians to be good role models.”
Mrs Leadsom is said to have had several approaches from front-runner candidates hoping to secure her support for their campaign – or even to explore the possibility of a joint ticket. How has she responded?
“I am committed to running my own leadership campaign,” she insists. “I truly believe in the bright future that awaits us once we leave the EU. And I think I have the best plan that I’ve seen for delivering a managed exit.
“So I’m not talking to other candidates about joining their teams instead … I’m absolutely determined to be the next prime minister of this country.”
‘Like anyone I can, in jest or in frustration, occasionally swear … In public discourse I want to set a good example’