Gloria de Piero: My first year as a shadow minister

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/22/gloria-de-piero-first-year-shadow-minister-women

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I knew there was a reshuffle going on, and I think I made a joke to Ed Miliband's staff when I got called to the leader's office, saying it was a bit like being on The X Factor – "Are you going through to the live shows or not?" When I was told what the job was, I was even more pleased. I think years ago, the Labour party once had a shadow secretary of state for women, but it has usually been part of another job.

There is so much potential for this position and I was really excited about it. Nobody has suggested, at least not to my face, that it's not a "proper" department – you think about the fact that women are bearing the brunt of the cost of living crisis. I talk to friends – men as well – who have children and are faced with high childcare costs.

In opposition, there is no money, no office. You get an extra member of staff, but the reward is that you are in Ed's top team and you can play a bigger role in helping to get a Labour government. It means I have less of my own time now. It's much busier – it has been like being in a car wash or a spin cycle, you come out and think: "I can pause for breath now."

The challenge is not to get caught up in all the internal things that are important in Westminster, and to remember that it's what is outside the Westminster bubble that matters. Political culture means lots of meetings – it was one of the great surprises I had, going from being a journalist to a politician. And when you first get promoted everyone wants to meet you. There are some fantastic women's campaigning organisations, which I met really early on – the Fawcett Society, End Violence Against Women – and in my role as shadow minister for equalities, I have met lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender campaigners and black and ethnic minority groups. Meetings can be really good, but you can't let them swamp you or you will only get the perspective of people who are largely based in London. The thing I like best is not being in Westminster and getting out and listening to people.

Soon after the promotion, I found out that a newspaper was looking for pictures of me taken as a teenager [De Piero had posed topless as a 15-year-old]. The following day, I posted a blog about it on my website. I'm glad I did that because it enabled me to say something about political culture. It did make me angry, but also defiant. I had done some polling, looking at the kind of people who went into politics, and about three times more women than men said they were put off because they didn't want the media raking through their past. I wasn't reading Hansard when I was 15. I was making mistakes as many people do. And I'm still standing. I expected – and got – support from my colleagues and other women, but actually many Tory men have come up and said: "Well done for standing up."

Being a new shadow cabinet member doesn't mean I'm going to change my personality. Dennis Skinner said to me during the election: "Just be who you are." Some people will like me for it, some won't, but at least I'm not going to be someone I'm not.

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