Convert to the cause

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Claire Perry is proud of her non-political background, having skipped student politics and spent her early career exploring the streets of Manhattan – but a chance meeting with George Osborne helped draw her to the corridors of power at Westminster.

Not everyone, it seems, can make up their mind about Claire Perry. On the one hand there is the successful, independent-minded businesswoman, plucked from semi-retirement by George Osborne to join his shadow Treasury team. On the other is an eager new MP who, say some sketch-writers, is slavishly loyal in her determination to rise up the ministerial ladder.

In her office in Norman Shaw North, the same parliamentary building where she worked with Osborne, Perry, who stands close to an intimidating six feet tall, is not one to hide her views. “I’m interested that people come in and start a rebellious campaign to get something through,” she says. “In my view, that’s not how to get something done in politics. But, each to their own.”

The mantra is appropriate, given her route to Westminster. Perry only joined her party in 2006, and yet is now MP for one of the safest Conservative seats. “We need to do more as a party to let people know that you can do this, even if, like me, you didn’t have a political background, and haven’t been imbibing politics since the age of 14 – like so many of our politicians have,” she argues. “I am not a tribal Conservative. I was a classic swing voter, though Conservative-leaning, and when I have been in the country I always voted for the Conservatives.”

English-girl in New York

Claire Perry grew up in a “conservative with a small c” household, but “flirted with left-wing politics for a while”. The first member of her family to remain in education beyond 16, she won a place at Oxford, where her eye was caught by a new party.

“The first vote I cast was probably for the SDP in 1983, but it was a one-vote flirtation, nothing more,” she admits. “I thought we needed a change and it seemed like an interesting third way.” But despite her college rooms being just around the corner from the Union, Perry was not enticed. “I avoided it like the plague – all those really sad, awful people,” she laughs, unconcerned that many of her party colleagues followed that well-worn path.

Instead, “work and rowing took over”, with her life “completely transformed” by her time at Oxford. She spent the next 15 years in finance, via a stint at the Harvard Business School, and nine years working in New York. “It was classic Sex and the City stuff: I was a single girl, living in a flat with a cat. It was all the stereotypes, and it was great.”

After marrying and giving birth to two children, Perry returned to the UK in 2000 and became a full-time mother. At this point, she says, her “political consciousness” started to materialise.

“I had stayed in touch with what was happening, but I got this sense that the macro path wouldn’t necessarily result in a more prosperous Britain, while there was this weird dynamic in the countryside that rural Britain just didn’t seem to matter.”

A convert to Cameron's cause

When David Cameron was elected as the Conservative Party’s leader, she decided to act. “For the first time there was a political organisation which really represented my views about the environment, social justice, and the economy. I had this awakening; I thought I should get involved.”

A “completely random” meeting with George Osborne at a fundraising event was pivotal. “I gave him my two-minute elevator speech about how I could help, and he asked me to get in touch with Matt Hancock, his chief of staff.” Six months as a voluntary policy adviser followed, and then Perry joined Osborne’s team on a full-time basis.

“So many colleagues have fought election after election, and all of a sudden I was working at the heart of the organisation – I felt humble to be there. The team carried a lot of clout, and what we did was amazing. We were pricing up policies on a laptop – the Prisons with a Purpose policy was done with Nick Herbert, two guys, a dog, and me.”

As the election approached, Perry’s sights were raised. “I stormed into the office and complained that we didn’t have any women who would stand up and talk about things, or talk about them enough. George agreed, and suggested I stand.”

Perry proceeded on her terms. “I said I would only do it in Wiltshire, where I lived. I was told that this was not how it worked, and that I had to go and fight lots of seats. I said that I just wouldn’t.”

Then Devizes became vacant, Perry applied and pipped Nadhim Zahawi, now MP for Stratford-Upon- Avon, to the nomination. “I was very lucky,” she admits, before pre-empting any question of a fast-tracking. “The selection was very local – there was no parachuting. Having experience of working for George – though we talked about speeches – didn’t matter at all.”

Now in Parliament, she admits that “people always assume I am part of Team Osborne, but I have no special insight. Perhaps I am just paying attention to things that are coming out a bit more.”

Pounds, prisons, and porn

But despite being entirely supportive of her party’s economic policies, Perry has a problem with the way the national debate is conducted. “At the main level we seem to talk in political soundbites, not facts, and that’s frustrating for lots of us without a political background. I know that your line, and getting the media on your line, is important, but shouldn’t we have a conversation about the facts?

The debate on Libya showed the House at its best, with people really questioning ministers. We should have that debate about the economy and we never do. It drives me nuts. We need, as backbenchers, to press for that debate.” Now that would set the sketchwriters straight.

“People say it’s great if you get singled out,” she says, when asked about those occasional unflattering namechecks. “I suppose it is part of learning to be a politician.” Perry also faced the learning curve when a bit of tea-room banter found its way into the papers. She wondered aloud how she might get the Speaker’s attention in the chamber, joking that sexual favours might help. She laughs, insisting no damage has been done.

“It was rather embarrassing, given it was a private conversation, but it has played really well. I have had emails from people in the constituency who have said: Thank God there is an MP who talks like we do – a real person.” And the Speaker himself, says Perry, found the whole episode “hilarious – I had a nice chat with him and he thinks it’s fine”. “He’s doing a good job: all that stuff about the anti-Speaker campaign is rubbish.”

Indeed, Perry tries to attend the chamber every day, with her three “spikes” being “pounds, prisons, and porn” – she is leading a campaign to make internet pornography an ‘opt-in’ for all UK-based internet service providers. She is also on the justice select committee, a deliberate attempt to avoid being “painted into a corner”, but still “gets involved in supporting the Treasury and economic policies”. “If we can get the economy right, then we win the next election. That’s where the action is.”

And the Treasury, one suspects, is where the action will be for Perry. “I will do what I am asked to, but just trying to manage all the emails and letters I get as a backbencher is a challenge,” she replies. As someone new to politics, however, she also has a refreshing willingness to speak her mind. If the right balance is needed, then advice comes from an unlikely source. “I want to go on a canal boat holiday, but my 11-year old daughter said: ‘Mummy, if you think we are going on a canal boat just for you to put out a press release, then you’re wrong.’ She’ll be prime minister one day.”

As for how far Claire Perry will go, when she sets her mind on something, it tends to happen.