Why have you stood down?
Peter Ainsworth: I’ve been here for 18 years. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the constituency side of it, and I’ve been very lucky that I’ve done a lot of interesting things here, both on the front bench and in the world of select committees. You never achieve everything in politics, because it’s a never-ending task, but I felt that I had done most of what I wanted to do.
I’d had quite a good year. My private member’s bill made it onto the statute book, which is unusual, and I picked up two green awards for my parliamentary work on the environment. I thought to myself: is it going to get better? The government has run out of money, and whoever wins the next election will be faced with some very difficult choices. I felt that I had reached a stage in my life where I wanted to challenge myself to do something else.
When did you take the decision?
I was planning my campaign and writing my literature before Christmas, and I had no intention of standing down. But between Christmas and the New Year I began to think about it. There was no single trigger; it was just a whole accumulation of ideas and thoughts. I took the decision at home, with my family, on New Year’s Day.
The timing has raised some questions…
There are people, all over the place, who have conspiracy theories. They are, frankly, bonkers. I hadn’t looked at the rules because I wasn’t intending to stand down – so they were of no interest to me. ConservativeHome rang me the day after my announcement. They said that, in October, they had told everyone that any Conservative MP standing down after January would trigger the new selection process.
Like every other MP, I get about 200 or 300 emails a day. Do I prioritise opening the ones from ConservativeHome? I have to tell them that no, sorry, I don’t. I didn’t open it, and I didn’t know about the rule-change. It was unfortunate, in that sense, that I didn’t decide 48 hours earlier. I can assure you that there was no conspiracy, just cock-up
Would you not have liked to see your party in power and perhaps take ministerial office?
Obviously you go into politics because you want to win, and you want your party to be in government, and in that respect my timing was extraordinarily bad. I was first elected in 1992. John Major had a very slender majority, then we lost big time, and there are no prizes for being a shadow. Of course, a part of me would like to have been a minister in a Conservative government but, on the other hand, in a very small way, I was a minister in the last Tory government – and it wasn’t much fun then.
If you were still in the shadow cabinet, would you have stood again?
If I was still in the shadow cabinet then my life would continue to be managed by other people, my time would be allocated by other people, and I would continue to be travelling all over the country and dancing to other people’s tunes. It’s only when you stop that you realise how much you haven’t had a life of your own. I got my life back just over a year ago, and I’ve decided to do something different with it.
What will you miss about being an MP?
I’ll miss the satisfaction that comes from the constituency work. You can’t always help people, but when you do, you get a real buzz. I’ll miss the camaraderie at Westminster too. There’s a good cross-party spirit and, not withstanding the hideous problems of the expenses saga, this is a pretty friendly place to work. I’ll miss the companionship of like-minded people across the political spectrum.
What won’t you miss?
I won’t miss Monday and Tuesday nights and hanging around waiting for votes. I also won’t miss some of the more vexatious of my constituents.
What are you proudest of from your time as an MP?
In terms of public policy, my twin passions are green issues and culture, and for much of my time here I have been dealing with those things. When I was first elected I had a private member’s bill on protecting hedgerows in the countryside. It didn’t get on to the statute book in that form, but it eventually led to the hedgerows regulation which was the last piece of legislation enacted by John Major’s government.
I thoroughly enjoyed being chairman of the environmental audit select committee; working with people from other parties is a pleasure as well as a necessity. I also enjoyed being in the shadow cabinet. I was at the environment brief during the foot and mouth crisis, which was memorable for all the wrong reasons, and I was hugely involved in the successful passage of the Climate Change Act.
How green is your party?
It goes back 200 years, to Edmund Burke and his notion of inter-generational stewardship and responsibility. It goes back to Disraeli and the interventions he made to clean up the waterways in our cities. It goes back to Macmillan and the Clean Air Act. It goes back to Margaret Thatcher and her speeches on climate change. Yes, it’s true that we somehow collectively lost the plot on it over the last 20 years and allowed it to become a left-wing issue, so I’m delighted that David Cameron understands the centrality of this issue.
Yes, we’ll be worried about the economy and the consequences for employment, but they can be put right. If you screw up the environment there is no bailout.
Do the grassroots members buy into the green agenda?
I think they are signed up but, in a curious way, without knowing it. There’s an innate sense of connection with environmental issues, which is not articulated when people bump into pollsters. The environment isn’t easily articulated, unlike the economy, crime, or transport – the old warhorses of political debate. If you went round asking people with a clipboard, then you wouldn’t get a positive result, but actually people care about it very much. Elections in individual constituencies can be won or lost on the back of individual positions – such as building an incinerator or tarmacking over greenbelt land – adopted on environmental issues.
What will you do next?
I’m not walking away from environmental issues. I’ve devoted an awful lot of my time to them and I care about them passionately. I feel it might be possible to be more useful in the environmental space without having 85,000 hungry constituents pouring into my office every day via email, telephone and letter. I don’t know – it’s uncharted territory. I’d also like to continue my interest in cultural activities, and I do need to pay the mortgage.
Will you remain politically involved?
I don’t know. I’m more than happy to support the Conservative Party and David Cameron. If I’m successful in finding useful green things to do, then that is bound to lead to some sort of political engagement because, in the end, politics does matter and that’s where decisions are taken.
What would your parting advice be for the next generation?
Stay close to the people who put you in this place. In the end, it is about public service, and not about having an ego trip. Any politician who loses touch with the electorate and forgets that it’s about looking after the people who put them here, is unlikely to be a politician for very long..
