Senior Tory MP Esther McVey has made headlines this week after spreading what she believes to be “common sense”.
The politician, from West Derby, announced how she wanted to see rainbow and other colourful lanyards banned in the civil service.
The 56-year-old self-proclaimed “minister for common sense” said there should be a crackdown on “back door” politicisation in Whitehall and this includes doing away with certain designs of lanyards used to carry security passes.
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McVey, Conservative MP for Tatton, used remarks to the Centre for Policy Studies to decry colourful neck-worn fabrics earlier this week - much to the dismay of many.
However, those who have been following the controversial MP since her time representing Wirral West between 2010 and 2015, might not be surprised. This isn’t the first time she has taken a swipe at equality for the LGBTQ+ community and other vulnerable communities in our society.
The Liverpool ECHO has rounded up some of the most controversial and divisive things she has said and done during her topsy-turvy political career.
Foodbanks
Few will forget the infamous moment in 2013 when the then Wirral West MP said she thought it was "right" and "positive" that struggling people were turning to food banks because they could not afford to eat.
She told the House of Commons: "In the UK it is right that, you know, more people are visiting - which you'd expect - going to food banks. As time is tough, we are all having to pay back this £1.5 trillion debt personally which spiralled under Labour."
She added: "The community has come together to support one another - that must be a positive move."
The MP for Liverpool Wavertree at the time, Luciana Berger, said Ms McVey's response "haunted" her, telling the ECHO: "It was disgraceful and showed absolutely no empathy - I was on the benches going ballistic."
Foodbanks again
This topic has landed the Tatton MP in hot water a few times.
In 2014 she sparked controversy by claiming there was "no robust evidence" linking food bank use to the government's welfare cuts and austerity agenda.
In a letter, she stated: "The rise in food banks predates most of the welfare reforms this government has put in place."
This was disputed at the time by the Trussell Trust, which said: "All the empirical evidence and research shows that welfare reform is the main force driving increasing demand for food banks."
Bedroom Tax
One of the most hated policies brought in under the austerity agenda of the 2010 coalition government was the under-occupancy penalty - or 'Bedroom Tax.'
The policy meant tenants living in council or social housing with rooms that were deemed as spare faced a reduction in housing benefits. This resulted in many poorer people falling into rent arrears or being evicted from their homes.
Ms McVey became a champion of the hugely controversial policy, claiming people who stayed put in their homes would be "more than happy."
Benefit sanctions 'help' people find work
More outrage was caused when Ms McVey defended the sanctions imposed on benefit claimants for making minor mistakes, back in 2015.
She told a committee hearing in 2015: "For people who have been sanctioned, that helps them get into work."
Misled Parliament over Universal Credit
In 2018 the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions had to apologise for misleading Parliament after the head of the National Audit Office (NAO) wrote an open letter complaining that she had on three occasions misrepresented to MPs the contents of a critical report on Universal Credit.
McVey told MPs that the NAO report said Universal Credit, which was running six years behind schedule at the time, should be rolled out more quickly. The NAO pointed out that in fact, it had concluded it should be paused.
Comments on LGBTQ+ relationships
During her failed bid for the Tory leadership in 2019, Ms McVey managed to offend another whole section of society.
Asked whether primary school children should be taught about same-sex relationships, she appeared to sympathise with protesting parents in Birmingham around that time, who said they would take their children out of school if such issues were discussed.
The MP said: "I believe parents know best for their children. While they’re still children – and we’re talking primary school [age] – then really the parents need to have the final say on what they want their children to know.”
The comments led to a backlash - including from some of her fellow Tory MPs.
'Phones over food'
In 2020, Ms McVey was antagonising struggling families once again.
In an interview with the Times, she referenced the proliferation of foodbanks and said: "When I was growing up my parents put money into food, utility bills and the mortgage.
"Now people feel to be connected they’ve got to have an iPad and a phone that will help them with education and jobs.”
Many people pointed out that some of the benefits policies she had been in charge of imposing rely on people having access to phones and the internet in order to get their much-needed financial support.
Using taxpayers money
It was revealed in 2019 that the then-Tory leadership hopeful had spent nearly £9,000 of taxpayers' money claiming a personal photographer.
Revealed by The Guardian’s Freedom of Information request, one receipt alone showed that McVey was invoiced £750 for five hours’ work for two shoots including “edits, image processing and travel time”.
The invoice came from photographer and PR man Jonathan Farber, who also happened to be an ex-Tory councillor in McVey’s Tatton constituency.
Ban coloured lanyards
McVey took aim at what she called “left-wing” academics and theories as she set out her stall to the Centre for Policy Studies and in doing so targeted the queer community.
The GB News presenter said in a speech that the public are “relieved common sense is back on the political agenda so that policies can be rooted back in the practical, everyday concerns of ordinary people.”
As part of this “common sense”, she said political views - and consequently rainbow lanyards - should be left at the building entrance if you work in the Civil Service.
In the same speech, she also dismissed equality and diversity in the workplace as “fashionable hobby horses” and said no more contracts would be handed out for external diversity spending by the government, including to organisations like Stonewall, the largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe.
The wearing of rainbow lanyards has been “widely welcomed” at Liverpool Council, however, as the city’s new Lord Mayor Cllr Richard Kemp responded to the panned comments made by McVey.
He used his first formal remarks in the role to rebut Ms McVey’s idea and said the lanyards were staying at the Cunard Building.
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