My first stage job was a summer season at Christchurch Civic Centre in Dorset playing the French maid in Noël Coward’s Private Lives, Sally Bowles in Cabaret and Honey in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which involved two hours of trauma and weeping. It was exciting and scary in equal measure, and also hard work rehearsing in the day and performing a different play at night.

Not having been to drama school, everything I did was pretty instinctive. I always assumed I wouldn’t get a job because of my background as a working-class kid from Batley. So every time I did get a job, regardless of how strapped for cash I was, I always bought a bottle of Prosecco (or if it was a good job, champagne) and did an ‘I’ve got a job’ dance – because I thought that would be the last job I’d ever have.

Looking back, I should have believed in myself more. My authenticity was my superpower, and I should have had more confidence in myself and my abilities. 

I think what I learned as a working-class kid in what felt at the time like quite a privileged middle-class profession was: fake it till you make it. Copy what other people are doing in the room. That certainly served me well as a politician walking into parliament. The day I became the MP for Batley and Spen, not knowing anyone or anything, being an actor was incredibly helpful. I could use performance techniques to hide my nerves.

Actors also need to have tons of empathy and compassion – that’s how they portray people who are not like them. And this is a real strength that I hope I’ve taken into my political life. To lead the people, you have to live like the people, and I think having been a free school meals kid, and my own kids being free school meal kids, life is a rich source of inspiration. My advice for aspiring actors and politicians would be very similar: make sure you live – engage with communities and people not in your world to broaden your understanding of the human condition. Volunteer, work different jobs, read widely and stay curious. Who knows what the future will hold?

CV

Age: 62
Training: BA Drama, Loughborough University; MA Screenwriting, London College of Communications of the
University of the Arts London 
Other credits: 30 years as an actor/writer