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Author: Simon Murphy
Dominic Llewellyn has a fight on his hands. The fresh-faced Tory party candidate for Newcastle East has to secure a swing of 13,930 votes if he wants to prize the seat from cabinet minister Nick Brown. Times Online rates his chances at just 1%.
But the 26-year-old is no stranger to overcoming adversity. In 2007 – just months into his marriage – he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Having successfully battled the disease, the Newcastle graduate now has his eyes on a seat in Westminster.
“I’m fighting to win, I want to win in Newcastle East so that the people have a chance to have an MP who’s going to fight for them,” said Llewellyn.
Llewellyn was just 17 when he joined the Conservative ranks – a decision he admits may have been a little hasty.
“Like a lot of people I questioned why I was doing it,” he said.
“But then I realised actually politics is really important – politics is about making a difference in the world.
“But I agree with David Cameron, the reality is that politicians can’t do everything, we can’t solve everything but what we can do is we can help create the framework to help society.”
It’s a strange time to want to be in Westminster – MPs are, arguably, as a result of the expenses scandal, even more unpopular than traffic wardens but that’s not put this young Tory off.
“I’m not in politics because of a popularity contest. I think now is just the time for people who really want to make real change happen to get involved in politics.
“Politics needs people who want to stand up for their communities, who want to stand up for the marginalised and generally want to make a difference,” he said.
Dressed in a tweed jacket, hair combed over in a Cameron-esque manner, Llewellyn is every bit the stereotypical Conservative – a believer in ‘the big society’.
He said: “The thing that really attracts me to conservativism is the fact that we’re here to govern for the whole country, no matter what background, no matter who you are – we want to give you the opportunity to succeed.
“Yes I am passionate about good school funding but it’s not just the state who delivers and runs schools. I think that charities, social enterprises and faith groups can do as good, if not a better job along with parents and teachers.
“The main difference between people who are happy and not happy and who are engaged is the number of groups they belong to and I think that participation is really important but I also think the state has to help create opportunities.”
The Conservatives have traditionally struggled in Newcastle and the North East but Llewellyn believes they’re beginning to win voters over.
“I think that the Conservative party in the last few years have really built up a strong campaign base in the city.
“I think that what we are saying is ‘come and have a look at us’, Conservative Future is one of the most active societies of any of the parties on Newcastle campus.
“I think that actually what we need to do in city is say ‘we’re here, we want to make a difference’.”
Llewellyn was involved in writing the Conservative’s policy plan on civil society and his day job involves helping truant schoolchildren find work experience.
He said: “A lot of them are non-attenders and we find them work experience during the day so they’re on the school register but they’re also getting the skills that are required if they want to get a job.”
He is also a governor for Excelsior Academy, a business enterprise academy for 11 to 18-year-olds in Newcastle which allows students to focus on their particular talents.
When it comes to the Europe debate, Llewellyn stands firmly in the Conservative corner – wanting to be in Europe but not run by Europe.
“I want to make sure Britain is a country that has its own destiny at stake,” he said.
“We should be able to manage our economy well, we should be the ones to make the decisions and the reality is: if we were in the Euro now – as the Lib Dems want – we wouldn’t be able to make the decisions we have and we wouldn’t have the economic independence to make ones in the future.
“I think that’s a worry for me – not to be able to have control over my borders, not to be able to have control of our economy, not be able to say where our money is spent.”
Like most Tories, Llewellyn points the finger at the Prime Minister.
“You look at Gordon Brown, he spent and gave up £7 billion pounds of our rebate without negotiating any concessions and that’s a worry,” he said.
“I think what is ridiculous is that we are giving international aid budgets to China. China is one of the richest countries in the world and quite frankly we shouldn’t be giving any of our aid budget over there.”
In the first TV debate, Conservative leader David Cameron seemed to indicate that China was a nuclear threat but Llewellyn – who says he has spent a month in China – was uncomfortable to “sit and point fingers”.
“I think that there are nuclear threats in the world,” he said.
“I particularly look to Iran and North Korea, and I think it’s really important that we renew Trident [the nuclear missile defence system], because at a time when it’s so easy for a terrorist to acquire a nuclear weapon and when Iran and North Korea are at various stages with their nuclear weapons plans, we need to take a stand and protect ourselves.
“One of the duties of politicians is to make tough decisions and for David Cameron – if he was Prime Minister – his duty is to protect the country and that’s why we need Trident.”
Llewellyn says Labour’s plan to get Britain through the economic recovery is “worrying”.
He said: “I have a credit card and if I ever get to the stage where my card is being maxed out, it’s crazy for me to carry on borrowing. What I need to start doing is make tough decisions about tackling the deficit.
“We need to move from an economic model that is built on debt and personal debt and we need to move to a model that is based on business investment and savings.”
The Conservative party say that to tackle the economic crisis, public sector cuts must be made immediately – a policy Labour say could risk a double-dip recession. But Llewellyn rejects this assertion insisting that families have had to slash their spending and so should the government.
“Not in a way that cuts back on front line services or makes people lose their jobs but in a way that protects the economy for future generations,” he said.
Higher education is another sector that has come under increasing speculation with both Labour and the Conservatives holding out for the outcome of an independent funding review scheduled for later in the year.
This month, David Willetts, the shadow Higher Education Minister, joined Llewellyn on a trip to visit Newcastle’s students’ Union and talk to worried students.
Llewellyn said: “No one is saying now – even NUS aren’t saying students shouldn’t contribute to their higher education.
“University benefited me, it enabled me to move on in life and get a job and learn a lot and I think the reality is university benefits all of us and I think it’s something we should invest in.
“I think we should wait and see what the funding review says and we need to listen to it, we’ve agreed to it, do I wish it had happened slightly earlier? Yes I do.
“But I think that we have to wait and see what the recommendations are before making any conclusions about it.”
At 26, if elected, Llewellyn would become one of the youngest MPs in history – he will also provide his party with the major coup of ousting a cabinet minister from his seat.
Nick Brown has been in office for longer than Dominic Llewellyn’s been alive – but the young Tory appears unfazed.
“I’m 26, perhaps you might say ‘have I got better things to do?” he said.
“The reason I’m wanting to stand is I want to help to make Newcastle a better place – I think politics is the way of doing that.
“We see a lot of educational failure, family breakdown – overall, the gap between rich and poor has increased, social mobility has stalled and I think to myself, surely we can do better than this.”
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