A couple of days after I was elected in May 1997 I was heading for my new shared office when I encountered a gentleman of stout proportions unloading an oriental vase from the boot of a car.
Recognising Edward Heath I offered to carry the precious object up the many steps leading to the Norman Shaw South building and having delivered both the Ming and the man to his office I was asked politely if I was “one of the new Socialists”
Admitting this I was then asked by Ted if I would like to be his “pair” – meaning that if he could not make a vote, I wouldn’t vote either as sometimes absences were inevitable.
“I’m hardly ever here” said the former Prime Minister and I was delighted to accept the offer as this was the time of all night sittings and I had a couple of young children.
Although it later transpired that he had made the same offer to a number of newbies I was struck by his kind and polite manner and I had a similar experience when meeting John Major – as long as we talked about cricket.
Margaret Thatcher encapsulated determination in politics.
Getty Images
Theresa May was slightly shy but really good company when you got talking to her and although I never went down the pub with Rishi Sunak, he was also friendly when we met in the tea room.
These experiences were running through my mind as I absorbed the latest stories about Kemi Badenoch being cold, standoffish, and sometimes downright rude.
Now many of these smears may well come from the friends of candidates that she defeated in the ballot for Tory party leadership but they do seem to have some traction and her quite extraordinary comments about lunch being for wimps and her preferring to tear into a steak at her desk instead of the more conventional sandwich or cheese toastie has rather reinforced the image of someone who is driven and determined to the exclusion of the usual emotions.
Maybe you need to be resolutely single-minded to succeed in politics?
Mrs. Thatcher pretty much wrote the training manual on determination but there are hundreds of stories about her great personal kindness to individuals and although this gratitude would not be felt by the miners, among others, there is no doubt that on a personal level, she was actually a generous and sympathetic character. Boris Johnson’s unique selling point was that almost anyone – especially if you were blond and female – could imagine themselves having a drink with him in the Dog and Duck.
Nigel Farage is making huge strides meanwhile Kemi Badenoch struggles.
Getty Images
All this brings us to a comparison between the two leaders of right (or rightish) wing political parties in the UK today.
I must admit to finding Nigel Farage extraordinary good company and although our politics are poles apart, I find him engaging on a level that very few politicians manage to reach.
The first time I met him was of the tube when he was in between unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament and we had a good old chat in which he showed no side or snobbishness at all.
As politics in the UK becomes less about huge ideological divides and more about the character off the leadership, I reckon that cold Kemi vs friendly Farage could well become a dividing line on the right or centre right of our politics.
At the moment Nigel is making the weather while Kemi is silent on all but her distaste for sandwiches. We’ve seen how personality shaped the voting intentions of millions of Americans and we’ve seen similar results in Italy and Argentina.
Keir Starmer will be judged at the next election on results achieved but the opposition can only make promises and portray themselves as leaders in waiting.
On today’s evidence Kemi is not cutting it while Farage the Farmers’ Friend is romping ahead.