News / Politics
‘Ready to defend Bristol’s lowest paid’
Following the general election, Bristol24/7 caught up with Thangam Debbonaire for the first of our five-minute interviews with all the city’s new or reelected MPs.
Bristol West’s new MP has all the fire in her her belly and passion for change of a politician battle-worn from a tight election, but fresh as a daisy to Westminster.
On her first days following her triumph over the Lib Dems and Greens she is already pledging to fight for Bristol’s underrepresented and often-neglected poorest communities.
“Although Bristol is an averagely wealthy city, there are still children in my constituency living below the poverty line and that’s not acceptable. It’s going to be a big priority to make sure the people on the lowest incomes have someone standing up for them,” she says, setting out her stall.
Given Labour’s result in the General Election and the formation of a majority Tory government, Debbonaire may have another battle on her hands to make the changes she promised in her election manifesto.
“It’s going to be hard, that’s certain,” she says. “But as an MP, even if I am not part of the government, I can bring people and resources together. I already know of people struggling, from our campaigning, and we can link them up with the right support or housing association, for example.
“My aim is to be as determined and pro-active as possible. I can a be an advocate for the people worst affected by the Tory legislation to come.”
She is also promising to try and push Bristol City Council into becoming a living wage city and says she will do everything she can to oppose the government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act. “I’m absolutely horrified by it”, she says. “But it comes as no surprise from the Tories.”
The extravagantly-named MP won’t be drawn on which direction she wants to go inside her party, once she has established herself in Westminster. But she says she hopes her background in domestic violence support can help, adding that she wants to make herself “as useful as possible”.
Whichever way she turns she will have now-veteran Bristol Labour MP Kerry McCarthy and newly-elected Karin Smyth for support. “I’m delighted to have such good comrades,” she says. “I’m also just really proud of the fact that Bristol is the only city in the UK to have an all-female group of MPs.”
She is also proud to become Bristol’s only black or ethnic minority representative. “It’s important that parliament looks and feels like us. These things matter,” she says.
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