{"id":824,"date":"2022-02-11T10:52:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T10:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland\/?p=824"},"modified":"2024-11-08T11:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:16:02","slug":"alicia-kearns-on-international-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/highlights\/alicia-kearns-on-international-womens-day\/02-2022","title":{"rendered":"Alicia Kearns on International Women’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a start to life as an MP. Last time we interviewed Alicia was February of 2020. With the retirement from politics of her predecessor, Sir Alan Duncan, Rutland said farewell to a local representative who had held the seat of Rutland and Melton for over 27 years. And prior to that, Sir Michael Latham had represented the area for 18 years, including Rutland from 1983 following border changes…<\/h3>\n
\"Rutland
Rutland and Melton MP, Alicia Kearns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In terms of the duration of how long Rutland hangs on to its MP, very little seems to change, very quickly. But since 2020, politics has moved fast and the\u00a0country has had a bumpy ride with the ousting of the second ever female Prime Minister in Theresa May to the arrival of a more ebullient leader in Boris Johnson who, we all reckoned, would inject a bit of\u00a0 character back into politics. There has been little to laugh about since, though, with the twin issues of Brexit and Covid\u2026 and more recently partygate, at time of writing the verdict upon which remains out, pending the release of Sue Gray\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Alicia wasted no time in meeting constituents and determining what her local priorities should be. She grew up in Cambridgeshire, studied Social & Political Sciences at Cambridge and worked in the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice and in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, becoming a defence expert before standing as an MP first elsewhere and then in 2019 for the Rutland and Melton seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, I had only just been given the keys to my office and I\u2019d been briefed on parliamentary protocol, but I still hadn\u2019t assembled a full team around me,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cThree months after sitting in the Commons for the first time, having been elected to represent my local community, I found myself having to vote to take away my constituents\u2019 liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lockdown began in March 2020 and in the first week of lockdown, Alicia and her still incomplete team had received 6,000 communications already, both about Covid and local issues more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an MP you do have many victories. Many of them are silent victories that go unreported. Like communicating with landlords on behalf of tenants or helping constituents who are experiencing domestic violence. They matter enormously to the people concerned and to me. On average my team is contacted by about 300 constituents a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alicia tends to travel from Rutland to Westminster on Sunday evening with her family. As well as the couple\u2019s three-and-a-half-year-old son, she now has a daughter aged just over a year. Alicia\u2019s working day starts just after the nursery drop-off and although Thursday\u2019s 6pm is considered an early finish, from Monday to Wednesday, MPs typically sit until 10pm. Sometimes not even voting on a particular issue takes place until that time, if a debate has dragged on, seeing votes not finish until midnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith two young children, I\u2019ve occasionally functioned on just two hours sleep. When I arrive, any schedule I have can change because your whole day is arranged around the Chamber. When the division bell rings you had to be present to vote within eight minutes. My first office was right on the cusp of that time frame so I had to run (literally run) to vote. I was moved out of that office because of ongoing work in the building. Any ideas of Parliament being very plush soon disappear when you see the mice and the asbestos. My new office is even further away in an old Department of Health building. Fewer mice, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParliament has now introduced remote voting for maternity and paternity leave, which would have been handy a year ago, as I was back at work 32 hours after giving birth. HMP Stocken was facing an outbreak of Covid so I needed to be present. There\u2019s provision for women to break from the Commons to feed a baby, but I don\u2019t believe that feeding should take place in the Chamber. It\u2019s not a nice place, someone feeding a child in there can\u2019t be focused on parliamentary business. Proceedings are live-streamed, too. I can\u2019t think of many mums who wants to have their feeding broadcast around the world.\u201d\u00a0 >><\/p>\n

\u201cBut women are now better represented in Parliament, and so better able to represent women from Parliament. As of December 2021, there were 223 women in the House of Commons, the highest ever, at 34%. Representation in the Commons is more than a third and we now rank 39th in the world for women represented in parliaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds progressive, but Alicia and other female MPs are still the recipients of regular abuse and threats, not least via email and on social media, even in a post-Jo Cox and David Amess era.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople seem to have dehumanised politicians and it\u2019s heart-breaking but true. I\u2019ve had threats to the effect of someone knowing where I live, or that my family are in danger\u2026 even sexual threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy team try to protect me from seeing the worst of them but every single day in an MP\u2019s inbox are the worst kind of threats and abuse, and I feel sorry that my staff should have to see those emails, never mind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t expect to hear from their MP once they\u2019ve contacted them, and on occasion when I\u2019ve replied to an email the sender has said they feel very ashamed and that they didn\u2019t expect it to be read\u2026 but still the emails are sent in the first place and what people will say to a female MP can be especially shocking. The fast news cycle and social media have made it easier than ever to hurt someone whilst ensuring they remain increasingly anonymous. You\u2019re no longer just shouted at in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just ill-considered emails and posts from the public, either. One political sketch writer for a broadsheet is particularly inappropriate, referring to Alicia\u2019s dress and appearance about eight times in the past six months.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in the Commons itself, politics is still played out to shouts and jeers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every political party you\u2019ll find at least someone like you, who wants to ignore the theatre and get on with being constructive,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t enjoy the aggression and the screaming and shouting. It\u2019s not professional. People only resort to that if they have no reasonable arguments left to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alicia is championing Ask Her To Stand, which is a cross-party group which aims to improve the representation of women in politics. She\u2019s also a part of a 78-strong committee in the Conservative Party who have formed a caucus to lead policymaking and promote the recruitment and retention of women in politics, ensuring that women\u2019s voices are well-heard and respected.<\/p>\n

Among her other achievements in her first two years as a voice in regional and national politics, Alicia has campaigned to ensure women didn\u2019t have to attend antenatal appointments or give birth alone, and she is involved in introducing a UK-wide ban on LGBT conversion therapies.<\/p>\n

Locally she\u2019s supporting the area\u2019s farmers, investing in roads and further afield, Alicia has recently visited the Ukraine to offer support those living in fear of imminent war.<\/p>\n

If anyone doubts that Rutland and Melton\u2019s MP goes to work on a Monday morning with any aims but to make the world better, or that women are anything but a terrific asset to national and local politics, serious reflection is needed\u2026 or perhaps, just a peek at Alicia\u2019s very full diary.<\/p>\n

See www.aliciakearns.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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