By Ned Simons - 12th April 2011
A health minister has inadvertently suggested many cabinet ministers, including David Cameron and Nick Clegg, are too young to be in politics.
Conservative Anne Milton, 55, said that people should stay out of politics until they are over 45 in order to gain experience in the outside world.
The prime minister and deputy prime minister are both 44 years old.
Speaking at the Royal College of Nursing conference in Liverpool this afternoon the former nurse said: "Would I recommend this path to anyone else? Yes definitely. I think going into politics later in life is a good thing.
"I've gained enormously from the experience I've had in the NHS both as an RCN steward and also particularly as a district nurse.
"I think it helps, it gives you an insight and a breadth and depth so I would recommend it.
Milton, who entered Parliament in 2005 aged 49, added: "But if anybody's got political aspirations can I recommend you wait until you're over 45? You sort of know stuff when you're over 45."
George Osborne is 39 years old and his Lib Dem Treasury colleague Danny Alexander is 38.
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is 44 and education secretary Michael Gove is 43.
However the cabinet is not a just political Logan's Run which excludes MPs older than their mid-forties.
Foreign secretary William Hague is 50 and home secretary Theresa May is 54, as is Milton's boss at the Department of Health Andrew Lansley. Justice secretary Ken Clarke is comparatively ancient 70.
But unfortunately for Hague he risks falling foul of another age limit, set by that young whipper snapper Clegg.
The Lib Dem leader recently said that he thought it was "deeply unhealthy" for people to got into politics when they were 16 and are still be at it in their late sixties.
The half a century old Hague famously burst onto the political scene as a 16 year old with a speech to the Tory party conference.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is 41 years old and his shadow chancellor Ed Balls is 44.
The youngest MP is Labour's Pamela Nash who entered Parliament in 2010 as a 25 year old.
Article Comments
I can see Anne Milton's point, but I think it's difficult to say by what age someone has gained enough outside experience to be able to use it to good effect in politics.
Some people have had an extraordinarily broad range of life experiences well before they are 45, while others may have done very little by the time they retire.
Am not too keen on politicians who have only ever worked in politics from leaving university to being elected. They could however be on this route and still not be elected until they were over 45.
Rebecca
13th Apr 2011 at 2:25 pm
He'd be right, as well. What on earth have Miliband, Cameron, and Clegg done in their lives to warrant the rest of us listening to their 'experienced judgements?'
They should also spend at least 10 years working in the 'real world' before being considered as MPs.
I wouldn't want my daughter running my household. She'd have us bankrupt in a few years. But wait - isn't that what the last youngsters did in Parliament?
Helen
12th Apr 2011 at 8:30 pm
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