Stuck between the snobs and the critics

Frances Leach | 8th December 2020 | Comment, Culture & Travel, Magazine, Social Wire

Carrie Symonds and Boris Johnson on Commonwealth Day 2020 (Credit: No 10 Downing Street)

Fashion can make or break in Westminster, says former aide to Jeremy Corbyn Frances Leach

Style in Westminster is an odd phenomenon. For some of the most visible people in the world, what they wear is often overlooked (rightly) for the political decisions they take and the convictions they hold.

But what is fashion’s role in the corridors of power? And does it really matter what you wear when you’re jostling for influence in such a volatile and superficial environment? The short answer is yes – of course, it does.

When working as an adviser in Westminster, it is always amusing to see the fresh blood arriving into the House of Commons after recess or a General Election. New MPs and their staffers alike must choose their style of dressing in a matter of days. For MPs, it can go one of two ways – either they arrive with a wardrobe that screams “I own the entire West Wing boxset on DVD” or, for MPs who come from more humble backgrounds, it’s simply whatever they could afford to put on their already eye-wateringly high credit card statements.

One such MP, who had just won a hotly contested by-election, remarked to me that she was in so much debt from her campaign she could only afford to purchase one smart dress for her first week in parliament. She simply hoped to disguise it with various coats so her more affluent colleagues wouldn’t notice.

For many, fashion in Westminster can be as much a tool of oppression as it is one of expression. The class divide between …

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