Former Prime Minister Lord Cameron, Wes Streeting, Carolyn Harris, Theo Clarke, Maisha Begum and Lord Arbuthnot have been announced as the winners of this year’s Pagefield Parliamentarian Awards, in association with Pernod Ricard and Dods.
These annual awards remind us that change is not only delivered from the frontbenches, but from every corner of our parliamentary ecosystem. From staffers and caseworkers to the senior political representatives rooted in their constituencies, these are the individuals who are dedicated to public service and our warmest congratulations go to them all, and to all those who were shortlisted.
Dame Rosie Winterton, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, hosted the third edition of the awards – judged by an expert panel of political journalists including the Financial Times’ Jim Pickard and Lucy Fisher, the Sunday Times’ Caroline Wheeler, the Mail’s Jason Groves, POLITICO’s Dan Bloom, LBC’s Natasha Clark and Politics Home’s Laura Silver.
The former Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, was announced as the joint winner of the ‘Frontbench MP of the Year’ award alongside Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Lord Cameron was recognised for overseeing the UK’s response to continued war in Ukraine and renewed conflict in the Middle East after his surprise return to frontline politics, while Streeting’s success in laying out Labour’s plans for reforming the NHS made him also a clear favourite with the judges.
From the frontbenches to the MPs rooted in their constituencies, Labour MP Carolyn Harris was awarded ‘Constituency MP of the Year’ for spearheading the ‘Everyone Deserves a Christmas’ campaign in her Swansea East constituency. The campaign ensured 2,000 hampers were delivered to elderly and vulnerable constituents who would otherwise have spent Christmas alone.
Conservative MP Theo Clarke was announced as the winner of the ‘Political Speech of the Year’ award for movingly recounting her traumatic childbirth during the first debate on Birth Trauma in the history of UK Parliament.
For the first time, this year’s event also included a ‘Parliamentary Staffer of the Year’ award in recognition of the tireless work carried out by those behind the scenes to ensure our parliamentary democracy remains intact. Maisha Begum, Executive Assistant to Independent MP Sam Tarry, won the award for her efforts in tackling violence against women and girls, particularly within South Asian communities.
The awards ceremony itself culminated in an emotional coming together between Lord Arbuthnot, the tireless champion of all those affected and wrongly convicted as part of the Post Office Scandal, and his former constituent, Jo Hamilton, who was among the victims of the scandal. Lord Arbuthnot was awarded ‘Parliamentary Campaigner of the Year’ for his relentless campaigning on behalf of the wrongly convicted sub-postmasters.
The full list of nominees for each category can be read below.