John Hayes: "I am the personification of Blue Collar Conservatism"

By Tim Montgomerie
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Energy minister John Hayes MP has given an interview to Paul Waugh and Sam Macrory of the House Magazine. You can read the full interview here but it contains a classic Hayes line or two.

Asked about the privilege of certain Tories he responds:

“I appreciate that not everyone starts with the advantage of a working class background and so I try to be benevolent towards those that don’t.”

And why does he think a working class background is so advantageous? Here he goes...

"I am the personification of Blue Collar Conservatism. My childhood was idyllic because it was the perfect childhood…in a secure, loving home, a secure, loving working class home. I grew up on a council estate in south east London, a council maisonette, with my parents. I adored my father, I loved my mother. I had all that I desired. They made me feel like the most special boy in the world. It was a golden age. “I’m very proud of my working class roots and I’m very proud of working class culture. I’m a trade union member, my father was a shop steward, my grandfather was chairman of his branch. My friends in the TUC tell me I romanticise the working class too much. But I have a romantic view of working class culture. I loved that world."