Sarah Olney, MP for Richmond Park chats to Pippa Duncan about the challenges, frustrations and positives, of being under lockdown
Sarah Olney’s career as an MP has not gone smoothly. A brief stint as an MP in 2017 was cut short by the General Election, which was called in June. She had only started the job in May, having won the job from Zac Goldsmith, who then took it back. Second time round, she started in January of this year and, of course, events took over once again a few weeks later.
But she has been undeterred by the new circumstances and has risen to the new challenge of looking after her constituents from her home computer.
‘It’s been challenging and frustrating really, when I’d really love to be out and about, seeing people, but that’s obviously the one thing you can’t do.’
Olney has been sending out a daily newsletter of updates and information for locals for those on her mailing list and she has had a great response to this, giving her the opportunity to be in contact with those who might not have ever bothered to go to the regular ‘meet your MP’ weekly surgeries, which were the norm before lockdown. There are the small businesses are really suffering, the individuals with no income or those that are worried about their vulnerable and elderly relatives.
‘We’re just trying to pick up on the things that people are concerned about and try to respond positively. It’s very much about sharing information, helping people to feel like they’re part of a community.’
‘I think there’s been a real hole in the support offered by the government to the self-employed, to smaller limited companies and various other businesses, like people who only started their own business in the last year or so. I think we’re all looking towards what does the end of lockdown look like.’ As a spokesperson for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, she is particularly concerned for the large local sectors of the film and TV, hospitality and aviation industries in the area.
She feels Richmond as a borough has responded well. ‘We’ve seen some really fantastic efforts by voluntary organisations – FiSH in Barnes and Sheen, Kew Neighbours, The Vineyard in Richmond – for instance. It’s a real tribute to communities and I think that’s something that always comes out of Richmond.
Like other working parents, Olney is also home-schooling her two children, aged 10 and seven, along with her husband, Benjamin. ‘We’ve all sort of settled down. We do an hour of maths every morning and then we just try and get them to do some reading, a bit of writing and something that isn’t screen based – you know, a bit of gardening maybe, or baking. Then it’s “It’s OK for you to do Minecraft for the next hour because mummy needs to do a public accounts committee now”.’
Despite having to deal with people in really troubled situations professionally, on a personal level, like many of us, Olney feels there are positives that have come out the experience: ‘It’s been a great opportunity to meet neighbours [she moved house three weeks before lockdown]and it’s really made me appreciate my parents now that I can’t see them.
And I won’t ever regret having spent this extra time with my children because I know if I’d been in Parliament all this time I would have been more absent. Just to have this quality, dedicated time when they’re at such an interesting age is wonderful.’
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