Get In Live: Ep1 Making Up the Numbers

Peeking out from behind his floppy 1980s fringe, this 15 year old scouse lad went on to represent more than 100,000 residents in parliament, but not before he did an interview in his dressing gown and almost flunked his GCSEs!

Patrick Hurley MP for Southport joins Kate for the first installment of the Get In Podcast.

You might be wondering where the audio file and video are. Well, like any digital media asset there’s always a quality risk, and the file corrupted. Scroll for the only salvageable photos.

What were you like as a 15 year old growing up in Liverpool?

I went to St Eddie’s in West Derby, which at the time was an all boys school. This was around 1990-92. I was a very underconfident teenager. All the lads at that time had a centre parting in their hair, and the fringe was ever so slightly too long. You’d have to peak out from under it. It was definitely a confidence thing. It was a way from hiding yourself away from the world. I was preparing to fail my GCSEs. Having done my mocks, I was on track to get Ds and Es (equivalent of grade 2-3 today) but through some serious cramming, I got Bs in everything which enabled me to get into sixthform.

I wasn’t really interested in politics. It wasn’t on my radar. Although in Year 8 we had an RE lesson where the teacher asked us what three things would we do to make the world a better place, what would we choose? Most piped up with generic stuff like world peace, and enough food for people to eat. I wrote ‘I would renationalise the water industry’. Obviously the talking point of left-wing politics in 1980s Liverpool, which I’d sort of unconsciously swallowed and regurgitated in this lesson. So, I suppose politics was always there, I just wasn’t able to articulate it until well into my thirties.

Would you describe your career journey as linear?

No, not at all. It’s been a completely higgledy-piggledy career path, a bit all over the place. I left school at 18. In contrast to my GCSEs, I did actually fail my A levels. I got Ds, Es and I think I got a U in Business Studies! I ended up going to Leeds Poly, which I think is called Leeds Beckett these days, it was basically the only course in the country that would have me. I lasted about 5 months studying to be a librarian and left by mutual agreement. I had a great time. I went out every night. I came back to Merseyside and got a part-time job in a shop. I left after a couple of years and went into telesales selling those Magic Tree air freshners to petrol stations. I moved on to join Direct Line Insurance for 10 years in customer service. By this time I was early 30s, I’d joined the Labour Party, and decided to join The Open University.

When did politics get real?

I was living in Aigburth in 2010, and was out for a drink with a mate who was also a Labour Party member. She’d explained they were short on numbers for people to stand for council next year, and asked me if I’d ‘fancy making up the numbers?’ She was very persuasive and said ‘dont’t worry, we’ll put you in the Mossley Hill Ward, which we’ve never won in 100 years of trying, so don’t worry you won’t actually win’. So I agreed to help them out. On election day I came home with a massive majority. There’s a photo of me at the count at 2am, the colour visibly draining from my face. I only signed up to make the numbers up and now I’m on the council, where I stayed for 12 years! 2011 - 2023.

How did you become an MP?

I decided in 2023 to make a change. We’d come through covid and I found myself increasingly frustrated as I chaired the Economic Development Committee as funding and grants from national government wasn’t supporting local businesses as it should. For instance, some of the funding we were getting were ring fenced for industries we didn’t need. Post-covid we needed hospitality and retail grants, but were offered advanced manufacturing! There were thousands of retail workers unable to get back to work as the shops had closed down.

I decided I can’t do much of a worse job than the current MPs (2019-2020) so I put my name forward for Southport in 2023. Again, like back in Mossley Hill, we won a seat we’d never won before and on election day we won it with a 6,000 vote majority. So yeah, I think I can say it’s going alright.

What are the core skills everyone should have coming into the work place?

Firstly, speak up confidently when you’re in a position to say something of value or relevance and secondly, humility. It’s okay to say you don’t know everything, rather than pretend.

We’ve all been in meetings where the person saying the most doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Developing the confidence to speak up is a real skill. I see overconfidence lot in parliament. On the opposition benches there’s a group of people who’ve been brought up with a lot of privilege, and they come along with their cut glass accents saying they know all about everything. They start talking and its clear they really don’t.

Is team work really dream work?

I couldn’t do my job without the people I work with. There are half a dozen people in our office and as I receive around 2,500 emails a month and represent around 100,000 people in Southport, i couldn’t do it without them. The team handles lots of different tasks, supporting residents with requests for support, drafting letters, replying to emails.

Now I’m responsible for directly managing a team of six, the last thing I want to do is micromanage, my management style is to empower the team and many members of staff have gone on to do brilliant things, alongside their day job. Youth clubs, heritage open day festivals, supporting grassroots funding. We’ve worked together to identify their skill set outside parliamentary administration to benefit the people of Southport and beyond.

Tell us about a memorable day in your job.

Like the time I was broadcasting to half a million people on Radio 4, in my dressing gown, trying desperately not to cough?

I was on the BBC Radio 4s, Today programme and I was so unwell as I’d developed whooping cough. It’s like a Victorian illness I thought had been completely eradicated, but I couldn’t catch my breath and it had been going on for around 6 months. I was booked to join the call at 6:45am. I’d hardly slept, I’d been up all night coughing. So, there I am in my dressing gown, in my front room, with a blinding migraine, dialing in to join the radio call on my phone. I’ve got one hand over my eye to stop the pain of the light, my wife is sat behind me, rubbing my back to stop me from coughing live on air, and I just thought to myself, what on earth is this job? There’s no glamour to any of this. People say, you know, these MPs in their ivory towers, they don’t know what it’s like to be a normal person, the privilege! They’re out of touch. Well, it isn’t like that for me.

Why should young people consider a career in politics?

If you’re starting out, just show up. Get yourself along to a public meeting, it doesn’t have to be politics to start with. Check out Ignite Liverpool, Liverpool Soup, an art gallery whatever. Take a deep breath and introduce yourself. The best opener I think is ‘what can I do to help?’ The bottom line is, everything is held together with sticky tape behind the scenes.

Young people think adults have it all worked out but good things happen when we come together for a shared purpose. No one will turn down help. Nothing is as professional as it seems from the outside. Be brave and get yourself out there.

In politics there are always opportunities to help at a grassroots level, like stuffing envelopes or taking names on a list. And as your confidence grows, you realise you’re surrounded by like-minded people who want to see you do well. Next steps could be a council role, or starting a business. Make yourself useful, offer to help and say yes!

To find out more about Patrick Hurley MP for Southport and the support and services available to local residents, head to: https://patrickhurley.uk/