Does being ‘genuinely local’ make for a better MP?

As I pose this question, I should first of all declare an interest. My parents moved to a small two bedroom terrace house in Denton back in 1975. I have, since being a one-year-old baby, pretty much lived all my life here. I grew up in Denton; I went to pre-school, primary school and secondary school here. After a short stint in Wales, at college (where incidentally I met my wife), I returned to the town and became a Labour Councillor for Denton West on Tameside Council. Now my own family are growing up here. I don’t suppose you can get much more local than any of that!

During my own parliamentary selection back in 2004, my selling point to local Labour Party members was that I was the “local choice”. I played heavily on the above back-story against the 68 other aspiring candidates from all over the UK. The selection was, rightly, a very tightly fought process and not one I want to rush into again! To cut a long story short, I was successful, became the Labour candidate, and was duly elected as MP at the 2005 election.

Being the ‘local’ MP does make it extra-special at a personal level. It sounds very corny, but it really is a real honour and privilege to represent your hometown in the House of Commons. But many of my constituents know me warts and all. They’ve seen me grow up and they’ve also seen me make mistakes. That’s the downside.

The reason I am blogging this is because last week a very good friend of mine, Luciana Berger was selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Liverpool Wavertree. She had to endure an equally gruelling selection process as I had gone through several years earlier and, like me, she won on the first ballot by a large margin.

I know Luciana very well and I know she has all the skills to be an excellent Member of Parliament, both in Westminster and, importantly, back in Liverpool. She is not just a credible candidate; she is an exceptional one. But between you, me (and anyone watching BBC Northwest Tonight last night), she’s not from Liverpool! What’s more, for some small sections in the Liverpool Labour Party, that’s apparently a problem! I actually think the real issue is their candidate didn’t win.

Hilariously the Liverpool Echo newspaper even made Luciana sit a ‘Liverpool test’! I’m sure it is to her eternal shame that she did not know Gerry and the Pacemakers sang ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ or that the late, great, Bill Shankly was manager of Liverpool FC – even this Mancunian MP knew that – but to be fair, she got the other questions right!!

So should MPs only ever be from that community they seek to represent? Does it really matter? I actually don’t think it does.

Since I posted this article, both Tom Harris MP and Jonathan Isaby have made similar points on the issue.