The BBC has just stolen Estates Gazette’s time slot. Meanwhile, Newsnight is on the phone arranging interviews. The media frenzy around Dr Liam Fox, MP for Springwood, North Somerset, has reached boiling point. Fox’s day-to-day job, looking after the welfare of his South West constituents, is on the backburner as the nation’s television crews clamber for an interview with the potential new leader of the Conservative party.
The date is October 17 – the morning before the first round of voting in the Conservative party leadership battle – and it is three hours before Fox is to be grilled by the same Tory MPs he hopes to lead.
On meeting the man himself, the first thing that strikes you is how much smaller and more petite he is than expected. He is a smooth, well-coiffed politician, something that is difficult to reconcile with a man who claims to be an extreme sport lover, having been bungy jumping in the past. It is easier to believe he is a family-orientated Eurosceptic and Altanticist who calls George Bush by his first name.
Calm and collected
Asked whether Bush would be invited to Somerset on his next visit to the UK to indulge in a pint of cider, Fox laughs and says it would be nice to entertain him: “I’m lucky. I have one of the UK’s nicest constituencies.”
Fox’s passion for his workpatch is just as well, as it is where he must now concentrate his efforts. For he did not know that morning that while he would subsequently survive the Tuesday vote, his dreams of becoming leader smashed three days later in the second round. Such is a politician’s life. But that disappointment was still to come.
In his office in Portcullis House by Westminster Bridge, which has a balcony overlooking the Thames, Fox seems relaxed. Given the media typhoon that raged throughout September and October, he seems pleased to be asked about his Springwood constituency work and all that is happening in the area.
Image problem
Springwood has a population of 191,000 and is just outside Bristol, the South West’s only real metropolis and the UK’s eighth largest city. Fox has been serving it for 13 years, winning this May’s election with 21,587 votes – a majority of 6,016 on the nearest candidate, but still down on the previous election majority of 8,798.
Fox believes the South West would be better served if he were to become Conservative leader and, potentially, prime minister. “It would raise the profile of the region because politically, the South West has been forgotten with the South East getting too much.”
The problem is also one of image. He says that people look at the South West and think of farming and tourism – they do not think of the potential for growth of business.
“We have 240,000 businesses, but half employ fewer than 10 people. All people can see is that there is a problem with rural isolation and problems with public transportation. People think of the seaside towns around the South West as holiday towns – they don’t see the problems of drugs, of homelessness,” he says.
He lays part of the blame for the South West’s lack of image with central government – a central government he, ironically, aspired to lead – and the fact that there is not enough power given at local level to deal with problems. “As constituency MPs, we face a number of problems that we have to deal with as best as we can. But we are often limited by national policy.”
Fox believes that power should be taken from central government and given to local authorities. Whether this would help his constituency – by giving it more power to control local amenities such as schools, hospitals and infrastructure – when it has such powerful neighbours is unclear.
Bristol city council is Springwood’s closest neighbour. As a political body, the city council has not had the best publicity. It has been enveloped in scandal, rapidly changing council leaders in recent years, and its planning department is often ridiculed as being anti-development (see p34). When the council is mentioned, Fox rubs his eyes, mumbles and looks at his communications manager, also in the room.
However, when asked what he thinks about the council’s plans to expand the city further into North Somerset, Fox is at first diplomatic, pointing out that regeneration in Bristol has been beneficial to the region, but he adds: “We have seen big expansion in housing without supplying infrastructure. Look at Portishead – we have had big increases in the number of homes but our ability to deal with road traffic has been limited. It’s the biggest cul-de-sac in Britain.”
Potential for development
He says that there is still a lot of land to the south of Bristol city that could be developed: “There needs to be further development of brownfield.” He repeats: “We have taken our share of housing.”
This concern over infrastructure, or rather the lack of it, is made more apparent when asked about the expansion of Bristol International Airport, to the south of the city, which is under the control of North Somerset council. In October, blueprints for a £80m expansion were unveiled, which would see expanded check-in and baggage reclaim areas, more parking space and a new hotel.
When the plans were unveiled, the number of scheduled flights had already increased to around 90 per day and passenger numbers are expected to double to more than 8m by 2015.
In May this year, Continental Airlines introduced daily flights from Bristol to New York, something which could bring around 450 jobs to the region. This has got to be good for the region’s economy, but Fox is not necessarily happy about this news.
“Bristol Airport has been planning increases in numbers but there are no improvements in infrastructure around the airport. There is no proper link from the M5, which is putting a lot of pressure on towns to the south, and no real links to trunk roads so you are seeing pressure on Backwell and Clevedon,” he says. The second phase of public consultation on the plans is under way.
However unhappy Fox is about the airport, he will have to accept that, whatever happens, a revamp is seen as helping the region’s economy grow, which is why North Somerset council is also putting in provision to help improve the infrastructure.
Having been knocked out of the leadership race for a third time, he now has plenty of time to worry about his constituency, however nice it may be.
|
May 2005 Appointed shadow foreign secretary May 1999-November 2003 Shadow secretary of state for health. Then appointed co-chairman of the party after Michael Howard’s election as leader of the Conservative party 1996-97 Parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office July 1994 Appointed assistant government whip. After a November reshuffle, was appointed a lord commissioner of the Treasury — a senior government whip June 1993 Appointed parliamentary private secretary to home secretary Michael Howard MP April 1992-July 1993 Becomes secretary of the Conservative west country members’ committee April 1992 Becomes member of parliament for Woodspring, North Somerset Lifestyle Dr Fox’s interests include health, defence and the economy as well as extreme sports such as bungy jumping. He is engaged to fellow doctor Jesme Baird. They are due to marry next month |
