MPs have ‘tried to kill themselves’ and had ‘total breakdowns’ due to ‘almost unsustainable’ pressures of the job, says ex-Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart
MPs have ‘tried to kill themselves’ and had ‘total breakdowns’ due to the ‘almost unsustainable’ pressures of the job, an ex-Cabinet minister has revealed.
Rory Stewart, who served in both Theresa May and David Cameron’s governments, claimed it was a ‘miracle’ that some of his former colleagues in Parliament had not died by suicide.
The former Tory MP, who represented Penrith and The Border between 2010 and 2019, spoke of how politicians had to ‘pretend’ they had ‘the answers to everything’.
But the 50-year-old, a former Conservative leadership contender, admitted MPs ‘don’t really know what’s going on’.
In a TV interview ahead of the publication of his new memoir, titled Politics On The Edge, Mr Stewart also revealed how he acted ‘creepily’ in pursuit of a promotion by Mr Cameron.
Rory Stewart, who served in both Theresa May and David Cameron’s governments, claimed it was a ‘miracle’ that some of his former colleagues in Parliament had not died by suicide
The former Tory MP, who represented Penrith and The Border between 2010 and 2019, spoke of how politicians at Westminster had to ‘pretend’ they had ‘the answers to everything’.
Mr Stewart was a junior environment minister in David Cameron’s government before going on to hold a string of ministerial roles under Theresa May
He told GB News: ‘I don’t want to talk about the specifics because this is deeply personal to people but, yes, colleagues tried to kill themselves.
‘These are people I knew. And in very serious ways – I mean they almost killed themselves. It’s a miracle they aren’t dead.
‘There were other colleagues who had total breakdowns in the most humiliating, personal, embarrassing fashion possible, in public.’
He added: ‘I think it is because the gap between the way that MPs are encouraged to present themselves to the public and who they really are is almost unsustainable.
‘It’s mad, because you’re pretending to be all-knowing, perfect, dynamic, confident. You are pretending that you’ve got the answers to everything, and that ‘I know where we’re going’.
‘The truth is, this is a country of 70 million people, and politicians don’t really know what’s going on. And yet we pretend to the public that we do.’
Mr Stewart was a junior environment minister in Mr Cameron’s government before going on to hold a string of ministerial roles under Mrs May.
He ended up in a Cabinet post as international development secretary in 2019 and unsuccessfully stood as a candidate to succeed Mrs May as prime minister following her downfall that year.
Reflecting on his time as an MP, Mr Stewart said: ‘I ended up despising myself. I would find myself sort of creepily trying to sit next to David Cameron at lunch, and I’d send these texts saying, you know, “Congratulations on your latest policy” that I didn’t really believe in.
‘And so I began to feel that I was being made, in my early 40s, into some kind of child.
‘I’d been the acting governor of an Iraqi province responsible for three million people, and a Harvard professor, and I’d run a charity in Afghanistan.
‘I thought that I was a reasonably substantial person. And I realised that, as soon as I became an MP, all that was wiped out. Nobody takes you seriously anymore.’
Mr Stewart admitted he wished he was now PM, after his bid to run for the top job in 2019.
‘Yes, I do. I think it would have been a pretty tumultuous ride,’ he added.
‘It’s not been easy – Brexit, Covid – but I felt that we had a real opportunity in 2019 to try to bring the country together a bit more. I felt it was terribly kind of divided and fractured.’
Mr Stewart was expelled from the Conservative Party by Boris Johnson in September 2019 when he and others voted to try and block a no-deal Brexit.
He said he had part ways with the Tories because ‘I belong to a tradition of a much more centrist, more traditional conservatism’, adding: ‘Also, I don’t feel comfortable in the direction that the party’s going at the moment.’
But he said he is not a Labour supporter and believes that both major political parties are ‘basically old, dead and broken’.
He said that, while there are ‘some wonderful people at Parliament’, there is also a group of people who are very, very bitter – unfortunately, mostly men – who feel passed over and feel that their basic mission in life is to try to humiliate other people’.
Asked if he’d decided on how he was going to vote at the next general election, he replied: ‘I haven’t, no. Usually when I get really stuck, I’m afraid I give up and vote for the Lib Dems.’
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