An unexpected little piece on George in the Atticus column of The Sunday Times this weekend…
Dave’s pig-shed MP may be one in the sty for smug Labour
When Labour tries to attack the Tories on grounds of class, as they inevitably will at the next general election, David Cameron should deploy his secret weapon – the Conservative candidate for Holborn and St Pancras in central London.
George Lee, a former chief inspector with the Metropolitan police, was born in a pig shed in Hong Kong. At five, he worked in a toy factory.
“I remember one time I was so hungry that I saw a bit of bread left on the road and I picked it out of the dirt and ate it,” he says. At 10, speaking no English, he came to the UK with his parents, who opened a Chinese takeaway in Portsmouth, where young George went to the local comp.
What fun to see Labour’s public school-educated cabinet ministers (such as Harriet Harman and Ed Balls) lined up against a man who can probably boast the most humble origins in British public life. Isn’t politics complicated?
Maybe they might put someone from even more humble background against him?