In the 2024 General Election, South Norfolk voted for their first Labour MP in almost eighty years: Ben Goldsborough. After growing up in Norfolk, Ben moved to north east Wales to find work. After a tenure as the Mayor of Flint, he has moved back down to serve us as our Member of Parliament. I wanted to find out what he was like: how does he feel as the first Labour MP of this constituency in decades? What are the issues he cares most about? And despite his already more than busy schedule, he was kind enough to meet with me to discuss it.
“It’s a huge honour.” Ben says. “I know there are huge numbers of people this time who tactically voted. That makes you very humble about the fact that you need to be an MP who works for everyone. There is no point going into this saying, ‘I won, isn’t that great?’ There were Liberal Democrat voters in Wymondham who lent me their support and I am so grateful to them. They wanted change and saw me – and Labour – as the best vehicle for it. I hope that mindset of humility will be helpful. Now the election’s done, I am everyone’s MP. Whether you voted for me or didn’t, I am trying to get the best outcome for everyone in South Norfolk. We also had a split vote on the political right for the first time ever, so those circumstances make you want to work doubly hard for everyone.”
“It’s a huge personal sacrifice to move from Flint back to South Norfolk,” I said. “Why the decision to make that much of a sacrifice?”
“I still have lots of family down here. I moved mainly because I couldn’t get onto the property ladder down here for love or money. (That’s why we need to talk about housing.) And even when I was based in Wales, I’d be back home about once a month visiting Mum and Dad. It’s never really felt like I’ve been away. I know about the issues on this patch because it’s the thing that [my parents and I] talked about over the phone calls or on the coffee table.
“The first ever Jobs and Apprenticeships Fair in Flint’s history was when I was mayor, and there were some amazing things we got to do, so those are the sort of things I’d want to do now I’m the South Norfolk MP. Working with Lotus, Wymondham High, the John Innes Centre – these sorts of things are when an MP come in.”
Now to the crucial question: “What were the specific things where you thought, ‘if I get elected, I can make a difference there?’”
“When I was knocking on doors, the thing that cut me to my core was just how many families there were with children with Special Educational Needs whose support services were failing. I had mums, dads, grandparents in tears to a stranger on their door saying, ‘I just don’t know where to turn.’ The first thing I did after being sworn into Parliament was go to the House of Commons Library and ask them to produce a report on Special Educational Services in Norfolk and Suffolk. Since then, I’ve tabled many written questions to the Education Department about Special Educational Needs services.
“An example of something needing changing is our truancy regulations. Neurodivergent children may need time off school. That is not “truancy”!
“The second issue is dentistry. We all know how bad things are in Norfolk. My dad, bless him; he was registered in Watton. His filling from the 70s went bad. He drove to Watton in agony. ‘I’m sorry, Sir, we’ve taken you off the NHS list. You can have it taken out but that’s the private bill.’ My dad has been a stable lad all his life; he had no money. You see that situation across Norfolk. Alice MacDonald from Norwich North managed to sit down with Wes Streeting on this issue – we’re working together to get that sorted.
“And to make a Top Three, another problem is the train station. We only have one train station. It’s Victorian. It’s beautiful. We are so lucky to have it. However, Platform 2 is an island platform for disabled people or parents with children in buggies. For example, if you’re coming in from Cambridge, you get off at Platform 1. Imagine you need to get to Platform 2 to get the East Midlands train to Liverpool. Disabled people or those with buggies are never going to be able to get from one platform to another in enough time. So the solution is a lift. I’ve seen it done in other stations and it can be done here.”
Ben then highlighted things the Labour Party has already implemented. “We are already setting in motion the free primary school breakfast clubs from our manifesto. Imagine the pressure that takes off families. Their kids are free in the mornings to go to work! People don’t realise that families are desperate to go to work. They love a hard day’s work for a good day’s reward. The system has had them working all hours God sends and still ending up on the breadline. It’s not people being ‘lazy’. We’re also rolling out our manifesto’s “Youth Hubs” with a mental health professional there. Imagine the pressure that takes off GPs, and the advantages of young people knowing there is a figure outside their families who they can turn to.”
Keir Starmer aptly said on This Morning that mistrust of politicians – words rather than deeds, etc. – is the “single biggest problem in politics at the moment. …It’s the actions we’ll take that will persuade people.” Sceptical readers may be thinking, “This from Ben is all well and good, but I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“I’ve been in for three weeks,” Ben said. “So far, I’ve been able to get three people compensation through the DWP for an error against them. I’ve been able to get someone compensation from the HMRC because the taxman made an error. Someone else was able to get their visa updated so they could remain in the UK (all their family was down here!). That was three weeks’ worth of work.”
Actions above words, indeed.
Ben then told me a bit about his work in the House of Commons. He was quick to say, “even with chamber work, when debating national issues, my questions and contributions will be locally based. For example, when the Deputy Prime Minister made her statement on housing, my question was about how Hethersett, Mulbarton and Loddon have all had their fingers burned because of bad planning being put in place. Houses are being built without the adequate services.”
He is certainly a South Norfolk man to his core. His eyes lit up when talking about South Norfolk community events. “Much of my work is the lovely stuff. The village fêtes. The community orchard outside Queen’s Hill Estate. Those are my weekends and my time to ‘switch off’. It’s meeting people and discussing things.”
“But that is still a full-time job,” I said. “Even when ‘switched off’, those conversations are still going to be relevant to what you’re doing during the week.”
“But it’s the best job in the world!” he said. “I love it. Of course there will be tough times and difficult decisions. But at the end of the day, you stand for the people who put a cross next to your name – and those who didn’t. It means something. It’s very special.”
I asked Ben about the current febrile nature of political discourse, and was relieved to hear he encourages bridges rather than barriers. “I have made a big point of saying hello to George Freeman [Mid Norfolk’s Tory MP]. We know each other. We recently had a meeting with the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, which is cross-party. Some things go above and beyond party politics. Hopefully, we can be a bit more grown-up about things – although of course (as I stood on a red rosette) there will be things on which we completely disagree. As there should be.”
On that note, I wanted to end by finding out more about Ben the man, beyond Ben the politician. I gave him a set of questions: favourite and least favourite book, film of choice, song of choice, and person he would want to converse with if stranded on a desert island.
“The book I keep going back to is the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s the one I go to if ever I need a picking up. By contrast, I have traumatic memories of studying a book in school called ‘Holes’. My film of choice is “Run, Lola, Run”: a very German, artsy film. The way my hippy German teacher taught us was to show us German films at the end of each term.
“My song of choice would be by Bruce Springsteen – I took my dad to a Bruce Springsteen concert for his birthday. Proper Father/Son bonding. “Youngstown” is my favourite.
“And the person to go down the pub with is Kathy Burke! She’d have me laughing my socks off by the end. A proper Eastender.
This is the lefty coming out in me again: where has Britain historically excelled? The arts! It is in the interests of our economy to never underestimate the value of the arts!”
