Transcript of Sarah Teather podcast
David Walter: I’m with Sarah Teather. Sarah when did you first meet Ming.
Sarah Teather: I’m sure I met him during the by election, but certainly I got to know him during my first few weeks of, of arriving in Parliament and I arrived in Parliament in October 2003 having won my by election in September 2003. And Parliament’s a funny old place when you arrive as a new MP and you don’t get a lot of feedback and you don’t get a lot of support as I’m sure some of my other colleagues will testify.
But Ming was very good to me in, in giving me feedback on when he’d seen me on programmes doing particular issues, you know telling me what he thought about how I’d done and that was tremendously helpful. Of course when, once I’d been here a few months he decided that in fact that I’d not had a holiday and I’d obviously been working too hard and he was probably right if the truth be told, and once we got to around January, February, whenever he’d, he’d come and see me he’d only say two words to me, ‘Holidays Teather. Have you booked your holidays yet?’
DW: He actually works ferociously hard himself doesn’t he?
ST: He does work ferociously hard. He’s a very, very hard working man and he’s widely respected consequently by, by colleagues right across the political spectrum on all, all, on all sides of the house as well as obviously within the Lib Dems.
And he’s very, very popular with my members as well because of course he was the person who fronted our opposition to the war in Iraq, he was the person who week after week put the Government on, on the spot on Iraq where …
DW: Because you’ve got a lot of ethnic minority people in, in your constituency haven’t you and so he particularly appealed to them.
ST: Well my constituency’s incredibly diverse, almost every nation and every religion is represented, is represented within my constituency. And the war in Iraq was a big issue for many people, not just Muslims, right you know across all communities, and they particularly noticed the fact that he was the person who was driving forward that opposition and he was the person who was scrutinising the Government.
And I think that’s what we need at the moment in our leader. We need somebody who week after week after week can put the Government on the spot. That’s what we need.
DW: There might be some people in the party who’d think that Ming would go down very well in constituencies where we’re facing the Tories but maybe not quite so well in constituencies like yours where Labour’s the main opponent.
ST: Oh no, I mean as I said Ming is incredibly popular with my constituents. He’s one of the faces that, that people will recognise on the door step and they will say, ah you know I really like, I really like that guy Ming Campbell, he does a really good job. And because they’ve seen him, they’ve seen him on all the high profile issues, when you think about the major political issues that have, have affected us in the last two or three years, since I’ve been in Parliament, many of them have been on international affairs and, and he has been that person who has been speaking for the party, and not just for the party but for all those other people who feel that their voice has been not represented in Parliament, he’s been the one who’s represented their views.
DW: And there’s absolutely no contradiction between dressing very well and having very radical views?
ST: Well I hope not. (Laughs). I think that we can all try hard to dress well and, and still be effective politicians.
DW: But that’s maybe why some people think he appeals to Tories more than to Labour people.
ST: I think this party needs a leader who dresses well. I think we, we’ve done with our image of beards and sandals I think. Beards and sandals are still very welcome but I think a politician who knows how to iron their shirts is probably a very good start.
