It was an absolute treat to meet Lord and Lady Heseltine at the Coalition for Global Prosperity's inaugral Annual Lecture. Lord Heseltine's 'Marshall Plan for Aid' emphasised the need to work with partners to tackle the global immigration crisis.
It was also a delight to meet Johnny Mercer, Veterans Minister and MP for Plymouth Moor View, whose parliamentary selection story is a thing of legend amongst candidates, and it was great to hear it from the man himself. His wife Felicity spoke of the intense scrutiny the couple are under and how they have managed to navigate social media over the years.
I was grateful to be invited to the House of Lords by Save the Children to witness the unveiling of their remittance campaign, after contributing ideas to it during the party conference roundtable. It was illuminating to hear the stories of British nationals, on how valuable remittance payments had been to their families abroad.
It was a month of hard work paying off, first with the Brompton & Hans Town fundraiser for the association, which the entire board worked incredibly hard on and we were delighted to welcome James Heale from the Spectator to the Anya Hindmarch store.
The following week, I was delighted to organise the first fundraiser for the CWO Kensington, Chelsea & Fulham, and incredibly grateful to Victoria Borwick and Lord Borwick for lending us their home for the evening.
The event was attended by members across Kensington and Chelsea, with many friendly faces from London North lending their support and coming to hear the legendary Steve Baker, Minister for Northern Ireland, speak.
Steve had just been sworn in as a Privy Councillor so the evening felt even more special. I am incredibly grateful to the constant support Steve has shown me since we met over a year ago, and everyone loved how honest and open he was about his journey and smooth navigation of the political arena.
Soon after, it was back on the campaign trail, knocking on doors and speaking to residents in Kensington and Chelsea and Hampstead, and I was delighted to venture back to Dulwich, to help the Dulwich & West Norwood conservatives campaign for GLA candidate Christine Wallace in Herne Hill. Disappointment with local Labour and the over-imposition of CPZs and LTNs were constantly raised by residents.
Two super events with the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) followed. The first a roundtable for prospective parliamentary candidates and a chance to discuss 'Justice For The Young'. This was swiftly followed by the annual Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture with Niall Ferguson and a 50th anniversary reception at the IOD. Niall Ferguson raised some great points. The key takeaways being: the economic issues of the future are demographic; monetarism is not enough; China being good at work challenges us and forces us to compete; and all that is needed is political courage.
To round off the month it was great to meet Dame Andrea Leadsom for a Women 2 Win policy session, to discuss her work for babies and her fascinating parliamentary story.
