Over the years I’ve become accustomed to the question: ‘You come from a council estate in Liverpool, so why aren’t you a Labour MP?’
My reply is always the same. I am a Tory MP because of Margaret Thatcher. In 1980, in what became a defining emblem of Thatcherism, she gave five million council house tenants in England and Wales the right to buy their house — at a discount — from their local authority.
With zero effort I can identify that single policy as being responsible for the person I am today. It was a hand reaching out to help haul my family and countless others up the ladder.