David Floyd talks to Dan Tomlinson about his first year as an MP

Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson (credit parliament.uk)

When Dan Tomlinson was elected in Chipping Barnet in July last year, he became the first ever Labour MP for the constituency.

We meet in a cafe in Whetstone in July to discuss a first year in parliament that has seen him take part in a range of local campaigns, while also being appointed as ‘growth mission champion’, a role which sees him standing up for pro-growth policies across government departments.

I ask Tomlinson about the highlights of his first year as an MP. After talking about getting to know the constituency “even better” and backing local organisations and events, he says he is most proud of Smartphone Free Schools, which saw him work with campaigners to get state schools across the borough to ban smartphones from September.

He explains: “It came up, genuinely, on the doorstep – with parents of kids in primary school saying, essentially, we need help. We can’t hold back the tide of smartphones.”

As he looked into the issue it was clear teachers were equally worried: “Early on in the process, I emailed all the headteachers of schools in Chipping Barnet and asked them to meet me.

“I asked them all to rate on a scale of one to ten how worried they were about smartphones in their schools. And every single one said ten out of ten.”

The key problem the campaign solved was that it was hard for any one school to take action on their own but they could if they all acted together.

Despite local successes, it’s been a difficult year for the incoming Labour government. We met shortly after the government had been forced to reverse controversial reforms to disability benefits after opposition from its own MPs.

Tomlinson outlines the challenge of responding to this kind of issue at a local level. He says: “When the government first announced its intention to reform disability benefits, we got lots of emails in, and I replied to everyone who thought they’d be affected and said if you want a phone call, I’ll have one with you.

“Since then I’ve had around 20 phone calls with individual constituents, which has been really helpful for me to understand the nitty-gritty of how people’s lives are affected by the big policy decisions that are made in Westminster.

“I think that the government is right not to rush this, I really do.”

But, he adds: “I definitely support the need to reform the system. We’ve got 1,000 people every day moving on to personal independence payments.”

The challenge that the government and MPs like Tomlinson who are not inclined to rebel against its agenda, face is that they want to spend money but are held back by the fact that they don’t have enough of it.

For Tomlinson, the best response to the challenge is to find ways to increase growth. The government, he says, needs to “put the pedal to the floor” to “get the economy back on its feet”.

When I ask what this means in practice, he responds with the combination of specific pro-growth policies and a passionate plea for a change in our national mindset.

He says: “After the war they built new towns within the space of a few years. They were up, people were living in them, people were able to live near good jobs, have nice new homes and new gardens and good infrastructure. Why can’t our country do that quickly anymore?”

He adds: “In the 1950s in the UK, the Queen couldn’t stop opening nuclear power stations because we were really good at it. We started work on one, then five years later we finished it, and then over and over again we were building more, building that resilience into the future.”

More recently, he explains, British governments have faced situations where “the decision is do you upset some people and get some growth, or do you upset no-one and stay stagnant?”

The result has been: “We’ve chosen to upset no-one and stay stagnant for decades – and this government is trying to do something different. It’s a strong positive message.”

Returning to the local level, I ask Tomlinson what key changes he’d like to see locally during this parliamentary term. This produces a mixture of nuts and bolts issues, convening of partners to deliver change and bigger national challenges.

Firstly, “I want to see more police on the streets locally in Barnet. The number of police was slashed in the last 14 years by more than half… We’ve made progress. There’s 16 more police officers in Barnet now than at the time of the last election.”

Secondly, “I want to see our high streets improved. Whetstone High Street’s pretty good, but it could be better. Up in High Barnet, there’s too many vacant shops, too many vacant properties, and I want to bash some heads together and get some of these vacant units let again… use the convening power I’ve got as an MP.”

Tomlinson’s final key challenge is improving special education needs (Send) provision for local young people. He explains: “The current system just is set up for confrontation, for disagreement, rather than for helping children who need help. So much of the casework and the conversations that I have has been about that issue over the last year, so I hope we can make improvements… I hear from so many parents just how bureaucratic and slow the system is.”

While many support these sentiments, the wider context is that the cost of Send support is already pushing many councils to the point of bankruptcy. Is Tomlinson really confident this problem can be solved other than with more money? He says the problems are rooted in “the design of the system set by central government” and is optimistic about the outlook for change.

He adds: “I know parents sometimes have to fight for their kids and I support them when they do that but wouldn’t it be better if, rather than having to go through three years to get a diagnosis to then get your child the support they need, we could trust parents and teachers more and get the right money to the right people sooner?”

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