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By Tony Grew - 25th October 2010
Paul Maynard is not the first MP to have cerebral palsy.
He was billed as the first person with the condition to be elected to the Commons when he entered parliament in May as the new MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys.
It was then discovered that fellow Tory Terry Dicks, who represented Hayes and Harlington from 1983 to 1997, also had cerebral palsy.
"I never wanted to be defined by it so I don't care if I am the third, second, first person," Maynard told me when we met last week.
"If I am the second that is great - it means two people have managed it."
Maynard, 34, is enjoying the challenge of being an MP and has little sympathy with some of the new intake who are not enjoying the job.
"I spent ten years trying to get here so it would be a bit boring of me to say I am not happy now I am here," he said.
"Yes, it is a challenge, it is a steep learning curve, and I knew before I came here I would be learning the ropes for six months, but you take it step by step.
"Anyone who comes here and thinks they are going to be in the cabinet in two years time is being a bit ambitious – it is a complicated place."
He ran against "St Vince of Twickenham" in 2005 and has fond memories of his former sparring partner.
"I got on fine with him, he is a good guy, there was mutual respect and he was very complimentary about me after the campaign.
"I was glad he got a cabinet job, though I would have preferred a Tory majority government."
Maynard said when he finally got to Westminster, "I was amused that the Labour party didn't know whether to barrack me or not, in case it looked rude."
"I encourage them to do. I don't care – say what you like. You need a thick skin for this job."
His maiden speech was judged to be one of the best of the new intake.
The ConservativeHome website called it "especially memorable" and reported "he spoke with passion - and from personal experience - about the need to support special needs education and to challenge the fears and prejudices of some about people with disabilities".
He told the House: "I do not see myself as a role model for anyone. I have too many frailties, weaknesses and imperfections for that. I am but a weak and humble man after all.
"None the less, I hope that I can be a role model to the many people out there who might feel that they want to play a role in public life, but may not quite have the confidence to do so."
Maynard had some knowledge of how the Commons works – he has worked as a researcher for Conservative party and as a special adviser to Liam Fox when he was shadow health secretary.
But none of that prepared him for the "massive" workload.
"I get 600 emails a day that have to be dealt with in some way," he said.
"You need to make sure you have good staff that you can trust. It is about managing."
Maynard said he was "confident" throughout his campaign for Blackpool North and Cleveleys.
"Perhaps too confident, because in the last few days it tightened up.
"You just have that inner sense, that reaction you get on the streets, from people you would not expect to be supportive who were.
"You have to be optimistic; otherwise you spend your time being nervous about the outcome, and all your time worrying not campaigning."
Maynard says there was "a bit" of negativity about his conditions – he also suffers from epilepsy.
"There was a bit of that, allegations on the internet that I was a drunk, ironic as I am teetotal.
"We heard stories that some of my opponents were saying 'well he is very nice but he cannot do the job', that sort of thing.
"It was all very low-level stuff."
On the doorstep, it was a different story.
"Once it had been covered by the local newspaper, an amazing number of people stopped me to say 'actually it is not a reason to vote for you, not a reason not to vote for you'.
"I do not think I had a single voter actually say to my face 'I am not voting for you because you have cerebral palsy.'"
Maynard is a big supporter of David Cameron's vision of a big society and rejects the argument that this is not the time to ask people to take on more responsibility.
"Just because economic growth is slow and the finances aren't good, does not mean the ideas behind the big society are any less valid," he said.
"Maybe if we had a money tree in the garden the expansion of the big society would be more rapid, and we did not create these circumstances.
"Our beliefs about the big society were not just a mechanism to get elected, they are actually fundamental to what the Conservative party is about nowadays."
Maynard says there are numerous examples of the big society in his own constituency.
"The danger is thinking the big society is something new and entirely different from anything that has gone before.
"It is a patchwork.
"It is finding what works and replicating it elsewhere. I can think in each of my wards of fantastic examples of a local project.
"I just wish they existed in every ward. One of my local councillors runs a skate night for local youths.
"We desperately need that in different parts of the constituency.
"There are these fantastic people – we just need more of them.
"The pathfinders are there already – working out the path is the tricky part."
Article Comments
Paul is a breath of fresh air in what he brings to politics and just the sort of MP that the UK needs to restore people's faith in our parliamentarians. I think anyone that has met him would agree with me.
Paul Galley
5th Nov 2010 at 3:50 am
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