We meet Caroline Voaden

Caroline Voaden is our new Liberal Democrat South Devon MP. The first non Tory to hold the seat (formerly Totnes) within living memory. Caroline, who was a member of the European Parliament and has been a journalist, gave her first interview after her maiden speech this week to Totnes Pulse’s Zoe Clough.

So, after just two months in the job, what are her first impressions?
“The place is, because it’s so old, it’s beautiful. You walk around and feel really privileged to work in a place like that. It’s staggering. Corridors lined with bookcases and paintings. It’s amazing. Although at the same time it’s not very practical.. There are not enough seats for everyone to be in the chamber. I’ve always said the geography isn’t healthy for debate – we should be in a round chamber where we can all see each other.
There are lots of other buildings. My office is six or seven minutes’ walk from the chamber. I’m lucky to be in a building which has been upgraded, which has air conditioning and comfortable
offices and nice toilets and a decent kitchen! While colleagues are in very old buildings with no air conditioning which are really shabby.

The Houses of Parliament are allegedly over- run with mice – so what about the mice?
“I haven’t seen any mice. I think the most worrying thing is probably fire, the cabling and things like that and I think we will need to move out at some point which will be a real shame. Lots of things have been suggested – they might move the Lords out and put us in the Lords and back again… but I don’t know. There is a committee looking into this.

Why do you think you won?
“Oh my goodness -good question!! I think it was the first time in a very long time there was such a concerted effort to take the seat. I gave up my job [chief executive of Devon Rape Crisis] over a year before the election, and campaigned six days a week. I was totally focused on winning. So I built a campaign team, raised a huge amount of money, I delivered leaflets, knocked on doors. I focussed quite hard on the Torbay side because this is always where the Conservatives have been strongest. We have always done quite well in the South Hams. I knew that the work was in Brixham and Kings Ash. We knocked on thousands of doors. They struggled with the idea (because), it was called Totnes constituency, so it was quite a job to persuade them that I would speak for them as well. So that was part of it.

What about the South Devon Primary part of it? (The home grown movement to ask Labour, Green and other voters to back one candidate to oust the Tory MP. Hustings were run in several towns and most who attended decided to back Caroline. The model caught the attention of several constituencies around the UK).
“So the SDP was definitely part of it without a shadow of a doubt. Having people canvassing for me who were members of the Labour and Green parties was amazing. We loved going out together. It worked really well on the doorsteps, when people said they wanted to vote Labour or Green and were faced with someone who was a member saying well we are knocking on doors for Caroline.. so that was really powerful.

But the Liberal Democrat party didn’t like it did they?
“No the Lib Dems didn’t like it. The Lib Dems were unsure of the primary model and would have preferred us to do it the traditional way. I know it made a difference. It was another voice which was promoting tactical voting which wasn’t what Lib Dems were telling people. The other thing which was really brilliant was the posters – “I’m Green but I’m voting for Caroline…” or I’m Labour. Lots of people did that. We can’t talk about how I won without saying the Reform vote undoubtedly really helped. I got more votes than Conservatives and Reform put together, which I was really proud of but the Reform vote did split the vote on the other side. And that doesn’t usually happen. It helped a lot of Labour and Lib Dem people win across the country.”

LIB DEM VOTE WAS 22,540. CONSERVATIVE 15,413. REFORM 6,363.

What effect can your party now have on the Labour Government which has such a huge majority?
“Well there are 72 of us. We are the biggest third party in more than a hundred years. We are not that behind the Conservatives in terms of numbers. So we are going to be a very loud voice on the
opposition benches. We are already pretty troubled hat they have decided to cut winter fuel payments and they have refused to lift the two child benefit cap, both things we think are wrong, they are looking in the wrong place for savings. We know there is no money – but they haven’t talked about taxing billionaires yet. So I think we are quite troubled and confused about why they went for pensioners first.”

Do you agree with the means testing aspect of it? (Only pensioners on pension credit will be eligible).
“I think means testing as a process is a very expensive thing to do – I don’t know but I think it’s not cost effective to means test it which is why everybody gets it. If you raised the tax threshold for pensioners who pay tax on their private pensions say, and have a tiny bit more than the threshold – so they could keep just a little bit more – is probably easier than means testing the WFP. So some pensioners would not pay tax any more. And if they are eligible for pension credit they should apply. There’ s no shame in it! It’s just a strange move and I think Labour have lost a lot of goodwill doing it. But you are right they are not going to lose any votes so it will be quite hard to persuade them of anything they don’t want to do.”

What are your hopes and fears for the Budget?
“I’d like to see something a bit more radical. Them taxing the super wealthy. I said it all through the campaign, I support some form of wealth tax. Taxing oil and gas, big banks, capital gains tax
allowance …all of which was in our manifesto.”

What are your priorities for South Devon? Your personal campaigns?
“I’m really concerned about metal health in young people, I think SEND education is in crisis. Devon schools are massively underfunded in the national formula. We lose out on £23.5 million a
year, which is equivalent to 450 members of staff approximately. Think what that could do. The formula doesn’t take into account the coastal deprivation and rural challenges. So our young people are really important. Dentists, pharmacies, access to GPs, ambulance waiting times …. the NHS is always there as an issue of course. Sewage in the water – but not just that… renewable energy,  working with farmers so they get paid for environmental schemes without stopping producing food, fishing of course.”

I’ve been around the block a few times, I’m quite confident.

What about immigration, it’s a big issue for a lot of people?
“I don’t think it’s top of the inbox in South Devon. Far more people write to me about the winter fuel allowance. I did have a couple of people (on the door) who said they can’t get a doctors’ appointment because of all the immigrants – I said where are they? That’s not why why you can’t get an appointment. There’s more demand and fewer GPs. People’s attitude to health care has completely changed since the pandemic. I suppose because people can’t get into hospitals, GPs are spending more time with people waiting for hospital treatment. And underfunding of public services has a big impact on the NHS.”

So are you enjoying it?
“I love it. I have got a fantastic bunch of colleagues. Lots with professional expertise right across the board. It’s fun. Every day is different. I like being the voice of the constituency. There are people who want me to speak up for them and that’s a real honour.

But female MPs have had terrible social media attacks… do you feel anything of that now or is to early?
“ I don’t feel it at all, I got much worse social media when I was an MEP. If a Brexit party MEP put something on their social media about me then I got an onslaught of abuse on Twitter. It was huge. It didn’t really bother me and it generally wasn’t personal. I haven’t had it at all here. Totnes is a really lovely place to be. When I go out and about in Totnes people say hello and smile but nobody
bothers me. And I’m older. Younger women get a much harder rap. I’m 55, I’ve been around the block a few times, I’m quite confident. If I get the feeling someone is going to be silencing me because I am a woman I will let them know that’s not ok. There’s a lot of strong women in out group and we aren’t going to put up with any of that bullshit. I have my sisters!”

So far, Caroline has made her maiden speech (about South Devon’s wealth inequalities) and asked a question in the House about online porn and how to stop children finding it. Next is the Lib Dem conference in Brighton and preparing for the Budget. And while she has sat across the Chamber from the Prime Minister, she hasn’t said hello to Sir Kier yet. “I think you start mingling more when you start going going the all party Parliamentary interest groups – I might join the APPG on music education. And then of course the select committees bring people from all parties together. We know the Lib Dems will be chairing the Health and Social Care committee and the Environment committee, two big committees.

A lot of it is quite opaque so you learn it bit by bit as you go along. There’s a lot to discover – it’s a journey of discovery Zoe!”