Owen Jones rules out standing as an MP in Nick Clegg’s seat
Gay author and campaigner Owen Jones says he has no intention of standing as a Labour parliamentary candidate in Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency.
The Guardian columnist was asked about the rumours before an audience with the political editor of the Huffington Post UK, Mehdi Hasan.
Jones said Labour had asked him to stand against the Liberal Democrat leader in the 2015 general election, but the answer was “no”.
He told Hasan: “I’m just not attracted by the idea of being an MP. I really don’t want to be an MP.”
Under pressure from Hasan to rule it out completely forever, Jones said: “I am not going to be an MP. Probably not ever.”
He said the question was “frustrating” and “missing the point”.
“There’s no point in people like me becoming MPs,” he said, adding he had worked to encourage “working class women” to stand, who he described as being particularly underrepresented in Parliament.
He said: “It’s not an issue of background. I want representation, working class representation in parliament.”
Jones has often been critical of Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Jones said: “I think the problem with Ed Miliband’s approach is that he often thinks one speech sorts everything out: he does a big set piece speech on immigration or social security and he thinks ‘job done’ – but it doesn’t work like that because most people haven’t listened to the speech outside of the political bubble”.
