Jon Walker: Midland MPs could be the ministers of tomorrow
Nov 19 2010 By Jon Walker
Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid has been bought into the heart of Government after only six months in the House of Commons.
He’s one of a number of new MPs to get a job as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, working closely alongside ministers.
A couple of weeks ago, I complained that the Government had failed to publish an official list of Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs), the MPs who assist ministers in their work.
Although they are not officially members of the Government, a PPS acts as a minister’s eyes and ears on the backbenches.
It seems only right that we should know who they are, and Number 10 has now published a full list.
Mr Javid, a Conservative, is PPS to John Hayes, the Skills Minister. The only other local name is Daniel Kawczynski (Con Shrewsbury & Atcham), who appears to have two masters - environment ministers James Paice and Richard Benyon. He joined the Commons in 2005.
PPSs are sometimes known, a little unkindly, as bag carriers. It’s certainly fair to say they are assistants rather than decision-makers, although the same might be said of many ministers (and even cabinet ministers when the chancellor or prime minister decide to take a personal interest in their department).
However, becoming a PPS means that they are on the first step of a career that could see them becoming ministers (or, who knows, shadow ministers) in years to come. There’s no guarantee Mr Javid or Mr Kawczynski will rise further up the ladder, but it’s fair to say they are ones to watch.
Let’s hope they do well, because right now, only one junior minister represents a West Midlands seat - Peter Luff (Con Mid Worcestershire) at Defence.
The region does, however, seem to have taken over the whips office, where Michael Fabricant (Con Lichfield), Jeremy Wright (Con Kenilworth and Southam), Peter Dunne (Con Ludlow) and Bill Wiggin (Con Leominster) keep the troops in line.
In some cases, a stint in the whips office is used to prepare MPs for a Ministerial post (whips are part of the government but not ministers).
Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield), Caroline Spelman (Meriden) and Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) are in the Cabinet, which is great. But they’re the stars of today, and we also need stars of tomorrow.
