Rifkind at ease in Kensington & Chelsea
Sitting in the Conservative Party’s Kensington and Chelsea offices just off the King’s Road, Sir Malcolm Rifkind appears entirely relaxed. And well he might: the seat that the former Foreign Secretary is contesting is generally reckoned to be as safe for the Conservatives as any in the country.
It encompasses some of London’s most desirable suburbs, including Notting Hill, Brompton, South Kensington and Holland Park. Sloane Square and the Victoria and Albert Museum are among its landmarks; it also boasts 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens, at £70 million the world’s most expensive private residence.
The seat is so widely seen as being safe that when the sitting MP, Conservative ‘big beast’ Michael Portillo, decided not to defend his 8,700 majority, Sir Malcolm had to fight off 205 other Conservatives for the nomination.
- Bedfordshire South West
- Edinburgh South
The competition was a little less fierce among the other parties, where Labour’s Catherine Atkinson is at 24 the party’s youngest candidate at this election. The Liberal Democrats have picked local councillor Jenny Kingsley, a former Conservative who switched sides in 2003, while the Green candidate is author and journalist Julia Stephenson, who also stood in 2001.
The feeling among locals, residents’ associations and even most of the other candidates is that Sir Malcolm will be Kensington and Chelsea’s MP come May 6. But when asked whether the seat is a safe one, he says: “I hope that’s right, but I don’t proceed on that assumption.”
Twenty-first century Britain is at a “very volatile” political time when people’s political loyalties cannot be taken for granted, he adds.
“It also comes down to self-respect: if you want to be a member of Parliament, you don’t just want to be elected, you want to be respected as someone who is making an important and viable contribution to the local community. And therefore you work hard, even in the parts of the constituency that might never vote for you.”
However, he admits a lot of his potential constituents are assuming he will take the seat.
“Normally unless you are the member of Parliament, local [residents’] associations are a little bit reluctant to go to one candidate without going to the other candidates because they don’t want to be in any way partisan.
“Because in Kensington and Chelsea it is overwhelmingly assumed that the Conservative candidate will be the next member of Parliament, there has been an interest in making contact really from the moment I was adopted [as the candidate].”
This assumption is reflected in the aims of the Liberal Democrats’ Kingsley – “I would hope at the minimum that we come second” – and the Greens’ Stephenson, who says: “10 per cent would be good – that’s quite doable.”
Kingsley, who lives a block away from the Victoria and Albert Museum, is confident residents will not be put off by the Liberal Democrats’ proposed 50 per cent tax rate for earnings over £100,000: “At first they may be wary, but frankly I think if they appreciate that we’re being incredibly honest about our plans … there is no hidden agenda. That is the only increase we propose together with very sensible prudent cuts.”
Stephenson says her main contribution to politics may be a practical one: she is converting her apartment just off Sloane Square into a model eco-house, complete with solar panel and, planning rules permitting, Kensington and Chelsea’s first windmill.
“I’ve applied for planning permission,” she says. “That might be tricky, but I’m going to make it my life’s work, because, you know, the council’s got to walk the talk.”
That leaves Atkinson as a lone voice of self-confidence amongst the challengers. She says: “I’m hoping to win. I think that’s what we’re working towards. It is [a large majority] but it’s not the biggest majority in Britain, regardless of its reputation.”
She aims to convince the good people of Kensington that everyone benefits when educational standards increase and the worst-off are brought out of poverty.
But when it is suggested that the same approach must have been tried in 2001, she can only say that Labour has since been doing “more and more” and has set itself bigger targets on ending child poverty and increasing international aid spending.
Atkinson also hopes her local roots will help: she was “born and bred” in Kensington and Chelsea, and her father, a local councillor, stood against Portillo in the 1999 by-election. In fact, all the candidates can claim some degree of allegiance to the constituency – Stephenson has lived in the area for 20 years, Kingsley for ten – except for the favourite.
Sir Malcolm hails from Edinburgh, where he was an MP for 23 years before he lost his seat in 1997. However, the silver-haired 59-year-old says he has “lots of links” with London that justify his selection.
“My son and daughter both live in London; my wife and I were married in London; we have family who live in London; and I have a home in London … London is one of the places that is home.”
On the ‘outsider’ claim, he adds: “I’m utterly relaxed about it.”
Driving him to seek another term in the House of Commons is the conviction that it remains “the centre of national life”. However, he says there is no danger that he would ever regard basic constituency work as “beneath” him – an allegation that been levelled against previous Kensington and Chelsea MPs.
“I don’t see any reason why a good member of parliament should not be a champion of the local community as well as making a contribution at the national level. And in a way, it is easier in Kensington and Chelsea than in other places because of its proximity … you can be taking part in a debate in the House of Commons one moment and be in Kensington or in Chelsea dealing with the local health problems in the community the next.”
When the phrase ‘Tory grandee’ is raised, he says: “People tend to use these expressions. Well, so what? I couldn’t care less.”
Sir Malcolm is also keen to emphasise – as indeed are all the candidates – that Kensington and Chelsea is not populated solely by Sloane Rangers and their elderly, pearls and twinset-clad equivalents. The World’s End estate at the end of the King’s Road is one area with “real problems”, he says.
Kingsley agrees: “We are known on the whole as a wealthy borough, you’re quite right … but there are great pockets of deprivation. And this is very sad. You have people living on very limited means next to people who enjoy great privilege.”
Nor does being wealthy insulate the area’s inhabitants from basic problems with hospitals and schools. The local primary care trust has major financial problems, leaving residents fearing that services may be cut back, and proposals to build a much-needed new secondary school in the area are also a source of concern.
However, without doubt the most vexatious issue in west London is the proposed extension of the Congestion Charge. If London Mayor Ken Livingstone can find the money, the charging zone will be extended to cover most of Kensington and Chelsea from 2006. This move has provoked an outcry among residents, who feel they will be financially penalised simply for driving in their local area.
The candidates are split on the issue: Atkinson and Stephenson for, Rifkind and Kingsley against.
Rifkind says extending the zone into a purely residential area will mean people suddenly start be
