We spoke to the new Lib Dem for North Norfolk at Lib Dem Conference
Steff Aquarone was elected as the Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk in the July 2024 general election, winning the seat back from the Tories. At this year’s Lib Dem Conference, Left Foot Forward spoke to Aquarone about his first few months in parliament and what he makes of the Labour government.
Like many new MPs, Aquarone expressed a degree of bemusement at the way the British political system works. Speaking on his first two months as an MP, Aquarone described the experience as “bewildering”.
He told Left Foot Forward: “It’s been bewildering, fascinating and frustrating in equal measure I think. There’s quite a lot where I’ve realised why things don’t change very much. I think there are some real organisational obstacles to that. And I don’t mean the tradition or the weird stuff, I mean just the way that government works – I’m not surprised that nothing really changes.”
Aquarone went on to say that the British government operates with an ‘arcane, siloed structure’ which inhibits change from happening. He said: “It’s very arcane, siloed structure – when you’ve got departments for farming and education and health and transport that are all separate, well none of those exist in isolation. Most organisations that I’ve worked in and with have radically changed the way they’re structured so they can do a better job for the people they serve, and that’s a long term thing that I’m committed to supporting and working cross-party to try and achieve.”
Throughout the many interviews Left Foot Forward carried out at Lib Dem Conference, it became clear that the party is very much pushing the line that it will be adopting an approach of ‘constructive opposition’ in relation to the Labour government. The result of this is that most Lib Dem MPs are willing to praise elements of the government’s programme while maintaining a critical position on other parts of it.
As with many of his colleagues, Aquarone drew attention to Labour’s decisions around the welfare system – specifically the refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap and the move to means test the Winter Fuel Allowance – when discussing the areas where there is disagreement with the government.
“So far I’ve been quite dismayed to see the fights that they’ve picked on the [two] child benefit cap and the Winter Fuel Allowance,” Aquarone told Left Foot Forward, later adding: “My personal problem is actually that this is a classic example of a new Labour government slashing and burning the things they don’t like politically without coming up with a viable alternative.”
He went on to say that the decision was ‘actually quite cruel’. He said: “To take away with no notice something which is going to affect 2 million really vulnerable pensioners – it’s going to affect 25-28,000 pensioners in my constituency – without servicing the alternatives, without funding home retrofitting, without considering in particular the impact on rural communities, where many households – a large proportion of households – still don’t have access to mains gas supplies I thought was ill-conceived and actually quite cruel.”
This isn’t the only area in which Aquarone is critical of Labour. He also questioned Keir Starmer’s priorities for transport, arguing that renationalising the railways is the wrong approach. While the party’s then transport spokesperson Wera Hobhouse recently told Left Foot Forward that the Liberal Democrats are ‘agnostic’ about public ownership of the railways, Aquarone was clear in his view.
“I don’t think it’s working at the moment, but I believe in essentially the contracted model for public transport where you let arguably even devolved regions decide what routes they want where and they are able to award those routes and the performance of those contracts to commercial operators. That seems to work extremely well in the devolved regions for bus transport and local metro transport. It works very well in London – as far as people are concerned, they’re getting on a TfL bus and it runs on a TfL timetable accountable to politicians who are elected. That works.”
Despite these criticisms of Labour’s transport policies, Aquarone nevertheless said that improving other public services would be his priority as an MP. Health services and sewage pollution from water firms are top of his list.
He told Left Foot Forward: “I want to see more rural healthcare facilities and I want to force the investment that’s needed by our water company into things that are going to stop sewage discharges into the sea and into rivers.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: UK Parliament – Creative Commons
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