Why Me
I cleaned this city’s offices at night. I cared for its elderly in their own homes. I worked security shifts until morning and walked its streets for a living. I studied through all of it, built businesses, taught, mentored and sat as a school governor.
None of that was the plan. It was what honest work looked like while I was building towards something else.
Which is why I believe what I believe about opportunity. It is not charity, and it is not a scheme with a logo. It is a door — and somebody already standing at it, ready, usually waiting far longer than they should have to.
I was that person. One door opened, and everything after it followed.
So when I talk about a bus fare, a shift that finishes at four in the morning, or a young person with nobody to ring, I am not working from a briefing note. I am describing my own twenties.
And I know exactly what changes on the day somebody opens the door. That is the whole of my politics.