Finding a desk was just the start

By Lisa Nandy MP

It is a strange time to be a new Labour MP. With a leadership contest well underway, elections this week for deputy speaker and – for the first time ever – elections for chairs of select committees, everyone is after our votes. I was always in favour of the fox hunting ban: this week I had a small taste of what it’s like to be the fox.

I spent my first two weeks begging the whips to have mercy and find me an office so I could hide from the endless list of candidates. Luckily Jon Cruddas, who can still remember what it’s like to be a new MP, took pity on Chuka Umunna and me and let us squat in his office. In the end getting an office was easier than I thought, though finding my way back to it has proven quite a challenge.

And yet I’m luckier than many of my new colleagues. Thanks to the expenses scandal and one of the tightest elections in decades, there are 233 new MPs – one of the largest new intakes ever, so advice from more experienced colleagues is in demand. I worked in the Commons for an independent-minded Labour backbencher many years ago and still have friends among the MPs’ researchers who have been a lifeline. They are much undervalued and without whom this place would cease to function.

But finding a desk was just the start since this is one of the most critical times for the party and for the country. It has been frustrating watching colleagues manage the bureaucratic and technical hurdles of the new IPSA system, often building up large debts, when they should be involved in the most important debates facing the Left for decades.

Thanks to the help of some skilled colleagues and my brilliant new staff I have managed to unglue myself and make a small contribution. First in the leadership election. I have been consulting with my CLP and have been excited to find a good level of support for all six of the original candidates – debate is alive and well in the Labour Party. Some members wanted me to nominate their preferred candidate, others asked me to nail my colours to the mast, and some wanted to see at least one candidate with a left/right/working class/Northern/BME/female background.

In the end I put my money where my mouth is and nominated Ed Miliband, who I think will not just win us back power, but win it for a purpose. Monday night was the PLP hustings and it was good to hear Ed voice the responses I have been waiting to hear from a potential leader for years: on the union link (for it), immigration (let’s not pander to fears, let’s respond by building houses and protecting agency workers), on the living wage (for it) – it was a breath of fresh air.

Thursday brought a wakeup call though with a debate on poverty called by the Tories. I spent five hours sitting in the chamber listening to right-wing ideology dressed up as concern for some of the most vulnerable people in the country and wondering how on earth, without a majority, we will protect them. I think Ed, Compass and Citizens UK are all calling it right: the Labour Party cannot do this on our own. We should start with the Unions and with party reform. If I have learnt one thing in my first two weeks it’s that the PLP is only worth its salt as the figurehead of a thriving party driven from its grassroots.