Margaret Beckett’s office – a calm and ordered room off an ancient courtyard – must be some of the most prime real estate in the Palace of Westminster. We meet there and the division bell rings constantly. Even when she doesn’t have to dash off to vote, she stops talking immediately, because she knows I won’t be able to hear her when I play back the recording. It gives her a hypervigilant air, like a spy at a cocktail party, pretending to small-talk.
Periodically, she does have to leave to vote. There is typically a mic drop as she exits the room, for example: “I think [Brexiters] thought the EU would entrench social democracy and they’re agin it. Because they believe in them not paying any taxes at all and us not having any services.” Whenever she returns, she has a piece of fun gossip. While we are talking, Vladimir Putin announces sanctions against 200 named British MPs. I ask what that means in practical terms and she says: “No idea, but everyone not on the list is terribly upset. Chris Bryant [the Labour MP for Rhondda] is fuming!”
