The Rt Hon. Esther McVey

Esther McVey MP is originally from Liverpool and has lived an eventful life. Born to young parents she was fostered for the first part of her life.

Lively, energetic, and often on detention she loved school & becoming head girl, before heading down to London to study law.

A fan of theatre, music and dance London seemed the ideal University location. By graduation day she had spent more time in the West End than in the law faculty! That said she happily graduated before swapping the bar for broadcasting.

Esther spent a decade, producing and presenting an array of programmes from GMTV with Eamonn Holmes to a legal series with Anne Widdecombe. She did chat shows with Nick Knowles, youth current affairs shows led by Janet Street Porter and was part of the team that launched Channel 5.

Esther McVey and her Journey into Politics

After a decade in the media Esther decided she wanted to move in to politics and so began a decade long journey. And in 2010 she became the first and only Conservative MP on Merseyside since 1997. On winning the seat, the political reporter for the local paper said he’d make it his mission to ‘get her out’.

It saw the beginning what was to be, for this Conservative, MP, then Minister, then Cabinet Minister, a brutal time in politics.

Media campaigns, twitter abuse, arrests, office raids, demonstrations, journalists camped outside her house even death threats, those five years were not for the faint hearted.

At the General Election of 2015 and after a recount Esther lost her seat, but with more votes than when she had won in 2o10 and with a bigger share of the vote.

The Irony the Minister of Employment was unemployed

In charge of 715 job centres one moment, she was walking through the door of one the next! Politics has highs and lows & Esther has seen both sides.  From being called to meet the Prime Minister, walking down Downing Street & being made a Minister to losing a Ministerial career & entire livelihood in an evening.

Upon losing her seat Esther vowed to return to politics as an MP even turning down a place in the House of Lords. In the intervening period Esther became the Chair of the British Transport Police Authority.

Subsequently Esther returned to Parliament in 2017 as MP for Tatton replacing George Osborne who described her as a “one-woman northern powerhouse”. She soon became Deputy Chief Whip, then Secretary of State and back in Cabinet.

‘Blue Collar Conservatism’

Esther soon set up the movement ‘Blue Collar Conservatism’ working tirelessly across all the red wall seats and stood for the Conservative Party leadership in 2019 to raise the voice of working-class Conservatives within the party.

As Secretary of State Esther led the biggest department in Whitehall, the Department of Work and Pensions. This Department employs 100,000 people, supports 20 million people. It has an annual budget of £200billion, the equivalent of the entire GDP of Portugal.

Esther’ McVey changes to the Welfare System

During her time at the helm, Esther delivered some of the biggest changes to the welfare system.  She also introduced a brand-new IT system and oversaw record increases in employment between 2012 and 2018 and record rates of employment. Moreover, she managed to negotiate one of the biggest settlements for a department from the treasury.

In Nov 2018 Esther took the bold and principled step of resigning from Cabinet as it was clear the deal being negotiated was not going to deliver Brexit.

In short, The Rt Hon Esther McVey MP is much in demand as a political commentator, speaker and host> She has also written four books on careers and role models.  Esther also writes an occasional column for the Daily Express.

• Becoming a Minister – from the Prime Minister’s phone call to running a department
• Surviving politics
• Working class and the Conservative Party – the fall of the red wall – as founder of the powerful Blue Collar Conservatism group.
• Serving 3 Prime Ministers
• Overcoming adversity
• From media to the Cabinet. Or
• From GMTV sofa to the Cabinet!
• Women at the top and smashing the glass ceiling.
• Barnardo’s child to Cabinet.
• Regeneration a vision for housing.
• Women at the top / Smashing the glass ceiling.
• My MSc thesis is on the traits of successful women – and from which I wrote my first career books for school pupils.
• Barnardo’s child to Cabinet.
• Regeneration a vision for housing.

• G20 on employment & future opportunities
• G20 on women & leadership
• Paris Global Women’s Leaders Event.
• Dow Chemical – Women in Industry.
• EY – Female Leadership

Events Esther has hosted

• National Property Awards,
• Business Awards.
• Community Awards