To kick off our eight-page special on the general election, Neil Rose examines the credentials of the solicitors and barristers who aspire to join Parliament's exclusive club

Difficult though it may be to believe, there have been suggestions that in the light of recent arguments, such as that over the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the expertise of more lawyers is needed in a Parliament increasingly dominated by ‘professional’ politicians.


Around 10% of the nation’s 646 MPs have a legal background of some sort, but it appears that only a handful of hopefuls from the profession are sure or have a fighting chance of joining them (see 'Parliament hopefuls' below).


It is not for want of trying. There are dozens of solicitor and barrister candidates pounding the streets up and down the country in the hope of joining the nation’s most exclusive club next week, from those towards the end of their careers, such as semi-retired criminal defence solicitor Richard Stevens, to those at the beginning, including Norsheen Bhatti, a 28-year-old law student.



For some, such as former City solicitor Shailesh Vara, who is replacing Sir Brian Mawhinney as the Conservative candidate in Cambridgeshire North West, the election appears a shoo-in. Others, like well-known civil litigator David Greene, are making up the numbers, despite his declaration that he aims to win for Labour in Buckingham, one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.


Mr Greene, a partner at London firm Edwin Coe and a member of the Civil Justice Council, describes himself as ‘old Labour’ – and giving voice to that wing of the party is a reason he gives for wanting to stand, some 22 years after he first took to the stump. Fighting a Surrey constituency, he was one of the many victims of Labour’s 1983 electoral catastrophe, when Michael Foot led the party to a terrible defeat at the hands of Margaret Thatcher.


The solicitor is among those in the party who publicly criticised the war in Iraq, and he says the war remains a big issue on the doorstep.


However, Labour’s Keith Darvill has not found this to be the case. Mr Darvill, a property, planning and probate partner at east London firm Kenneth Elliott & Rowe, is looking to win back the Upminster seat he lost in 2001. He won it in 1997 with a 15% swing, but last time out it was one of only five seats the Conservatives took from the government – and it was the hardest of them too, being number 50 on their target list. This time around, it is number six on Labour’s hit list.


Bucking the national trend, the Tories enjoyed a fair degree of success in this part of the country four years ago, also taking Romford. Mr Darvill explains that some local issues had disillusioned voters then, but he has worked hard to maintain his involvement in the political scene since winning a seat on the local council.


While confident that Labour will triumph nationally, Mr Darvill concedes that it is in ‘the lap of the gods’ as to whether he will be returned to Westminster. His honest appraisal of feedback on the doorstep is that ‘people are grumbling about Labour, but they are not moving across to the Conservatives’.


Mr Darvill ran his own practice when first elected, and brought in another partner to take on the work thereafter. They then decided to merge with Kenneth Elliott, one of the area’s largest practices. He anticipates staying on in some kind of consultancy role if he wins.


A Conservative solicitor who is unlikely to need such plans is Jonathan Mortimer, head of commercial litigation in the York office of Langleys. Having got down to the last two to challenge Tony Blair in Sedgefield, he finds himself contesting another massive Labour majority in Hemsworth, a large constituency between Wakefield and Doncaster, where sitting MP John Trickett secured two-thirds of the votes in 2001.


While recognising that he faces an ‘uphill battle’, Mr Mortimer maintains that there are ‘unique circumstances’ in the area that do give grounds for optimism. He explains that the effects of mine closures that so hit the Tory vote in Hemsworth in the 1980s and 1990s are now diminishing, while the local MP and Labour council are increasingly unpopular.


He says he has received a warm welcome on the doorsteps and detected strong signs of people turning against the government, with issues such as immigration and various taxes – such as council tax, inheritance tax and stamp duty – high on the agenda.


However, Mr Mortimer says it is difficult for a professional person to stand for Parliament. He has worked out that this year he has spent three-and-a-half hours a day on political matters while also focusing on a busy practice. ‘One of the big problems we have in politics is getting good people to put their names forward because of the time required,’ he says.


Nonetheless, he has no regrets about standing for the first time, describing it as ‘probably the most interesting thing I have ever done’. While the Conservatives in the past have been criticised for having too many lawyers in their ranks, Mr Mortimer contends that the reason is because the law provides a perfect grounding.


Indeed, he suggests that there is a ‘higher level of debate’ in the profession than in politics. When acting in court, judges have on occasion accused him of answering like a politician and Mr Mortimer says you can say things in politics that ‘you can’t get away with in court’.


Perhaps that is why so many barristers are contesting the election, but again few are in obviously winnable seats. Two former barristers look set to join the Conservatives’ ranks: MEP Theresa Villiers is defending Sir Sydney Chapman’s majority in Chipping Barnet and journalist Ed Vaizey will be looking to hold on to Wantage. Mr Vaizey will be up against Labour barrister Mark McDonald, with the seat number 41 on the party’s target list. Geoffrey Cox is contesting Torridge and west Devon, currently held by the Liberal Democrats but the Tories’ 16th target.


For Labour, Yasmin Qureshi will be hoping to win back the previously safe seat of Brent East, which the Liberal Democrats won in a famous by-election in 2003, while Emily Thornberry should be returned in the New Labour heartland of Islington South & Finsbury, Chris Smith’s old seat.


Of course, barristers dominate at the top end of politics. As well as Tony Blair and Michael Howard both having been called to the bar, so was Petrina Holdsworth, chairwoman of the UK Independence Party. But there is one practising solicitor at the helm of a party – the less high-profile English Democrats Party, which recently unveiled outspoken journalist Garry Bushell as one of its candidates.


Sole practitioner Robin Tilbrook, a former Conservative and former president of Mid Essex Law Society, is standing in Epping Forest, where sitting Tory MP Eleanor Laing – herself a solicitor – is defending a comfortable majority. London-based QC Jervis Kay is standing for the party in Ipswich.


Mr Tilbrook, a civil litigator, helped set up the English Democrats in 2002, which came about as a reaction to concerns that constitutional reform has ignored the interests and wishes of the people of England. Flying under the banner ‘Putting England first’, a key policy is the call for an English parliament.


In the last European elections, the party received more than 130,000 votes in five of the nine UK constituencies, which Mr Tilbrook says is the highest ever for the first outing of a nationalist party. He says that in three areas it polled better than George Galloway’s Respect Coalition, but has not had anything like the same publicity.


Arguing that people shy away from English nationalistic feeling, Mr Tilbrook emphasises that his party is not campaigning for the end of the union; rather it is pushing for England to be part of it ‘on fair terms’. Mr Tilbrook is realistic about his party’s prospects at the election but explains that ‘we’re using the electoral process to campaign’ and raise the profile of the issues the English Democrats believe to be important.


However, for Jim Murray electoral hope springs eternal. The senior partner of large Liverpool legal aid firm James Murray Solicitors, he is standing for the Liberal Democrats in Crosby, once the scene of Shirley Williams’ famous victory for the SDP in 1981, but won by Labour from the Conservatives in 1997 with a sensational 18% swing. The majority was increased in 2001.


Mr Murray says there has been a lot of movement in the vote over the years in the area, thanks to a ‘thinking, voting population’ who are raising issues such as trust and civil liberties on the doorsteps. He is hoping to take ‘disillusioned’ Labour and Conservative voters – this is not a New Labour area, he says – and maintains that an unlikely win is possible. In 2001, he stood in Bootle and pushed the Tories into third place for the first time in a century.


Even if it does not happen this time, Mr Murray says forthcoming boundary changes – which would be in place if there were a hung Parliament and a need for another election shortly afterwards – would change Crosby into a fight between his party and the Conservatives.


He says he has four supportive partners in the event of his victory. ‘I hope it’s not because they’re trying to get rid of me,’ he jokes. And even if Mr Murray does not win, he gives every sign of trying again. ‘I love it. There’s nothing better than knocking on doors and meeting people.’


Mr Murray also gives away what could be one of the reasons so many lawyers aspire to become MPs. He says: ‘Being an advocate, I love the sound of my own voice.’






Sitting MPs


All but two of the current 30 English and Welsh solicitor MPs – 12 Labour, 15 Conservative, two Liberal Democrat and one Plaid Cymru – are standing again next week.

Leaving Parliament are Labour’s Paul Boateng – currently chief secretary to the Treasury, who practised as solicitor for many years before requalifying as a barrister and is now set to be Britain’s High Commissioner to South Africa – and Liberal Democrat John Burnett, who is joining west country firm Stephens & Scown as a consultant.

Four of Labour’s candidates are currently in the government: Harriet Harman QC is the Solicitor-General; Mike O’Brien and Hazel Blears are ministers at the Department for Trade & Industry and Home Office respectively; and Maria Eagle is parliamentary under-secretary at the Department of Work & Pensions.

Five of the solicitor MPs are under real threat. Labour’s Alan Hurst (Braintree, majority 358) and the Liberal Democrats’ Norman Lamb (Norfolk North, 483) are at numbers four and six respectively on the Conservatives’ list of target seats. Tories David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds, 2,503) and Peter Viggers (Gosport, 2,621) find themselves at numbers eight and 15 on Labour’s list. Meanwhile, fellow Tory Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, 2,154) occupies the ninth most likely seat to fall to the Liberal Democrats.

Some of the 28 find themselves up against other lawyers in the election campaign.

The Conservatives are fielding family barrister Jessica Lee against Ms Harman, while one-time Shadow Attorney-General Bill Cash should retain his seat despite the challenge of semi-retired criminal defence solicitor Richard Stevens for the Liberal Democrats.






Parliamentary hopefuls


There may be dozens of them hoping to get into Parliament, but only three solicitors can say with any certainty that they will achieve it. David Gauke – until recently an assistant at City firm Macfarlanes – and former CMS Cameron McKenna lawyer Shailesh Vara should be elected in Hertfordshire South West and Cambridgeshire North West respectively for the Conservatives.

Mr Vara is a party vice-chairman who has previously been tipped to become the first Asian prime minister. However, his ambitions suffered a setback in 2001 when he failed to reduce Labour’s slim 744 majority in Northampton South.

For Labour, well-known human rights lawyer Sadiq Khan should easily win Tooting in south London. A name partner at well-known human rights firm Christian Khan before leaving last year to concentrate on his political career, he was until recently the chairman of human rights group Liberty.

A few need realistic swings to make it. For the Tories, David Jones, senior partner of Llandudno firm David Jones & Co, is standing in Clwyd West, the Tories’ 20th target seat. James Brokenshire, an associate in the London office of US firm Jones Day, is aiming to win Hornchurch, target number 24. If Gareth Johnson, an assistant at Kent firm Thos Boyd Whyte, takes Dartford from Labour, number 46 on the Conservatives’ hit list, then it should be a sign of a good night for the opposition.

Labour’s Keith Darvill hopes to win back the Upminster seat he lost in 2001 to the Conservatives. It is the sixth most likely seat to fall to Labour.

Emily Gasson, the in-house solicitor at housing association South Somerset Homes, has the best chance of any Liberal Democrat lawyer to be elected. She is standing again in Conservative-held Dorset North, the party’s 17th target seat, having failed in the same seat in 2001 – in fact, the majority was increased.

Many other solicitor-candidates are either near the bottom of the target seats list – well-known woman solicitor Fiona Bruce is contesting Warrington South, the Conservatives’ 138th target – or fighting a seemingly lost cause. Richard de Ste Croix, one-time head of employment at London firm Bristows, and now a partner at niche employment firm Good Solutions Solicitors, is standing for the Lib Dems in Fareham, where his party came a distant third in 2001.

In 1997, then trainee solicitor Claire Ward got elected in Watford at the age of 24, making her the youngest MP at the time. Two young women stand out as trying to follow her example, although neither looks like winning. Sayeeda Warsi, who is 34 and founded George Warsi Solicitors in Dewsbury, is standing in the town for the Conservatives, while

28-year-old law student Norsheen Bhatti is the Liberal Democrats’ candidate in Battersea, south London.