Don’t believe the hype – Theresa May has more support than ever at this Tory conference

It's party conference season again and I’m glad to be attending the Conservative Party conference for the second time as an MP. Compared to last year I think I’m making some progress – I’ve been asked to speak at six events and only one is the dreaded 7.30am slot!

I think it was Harold Wilson who once said: “a week is a long time in politics”. He clearly didn’t foresee today’s digital world where everything can change in less than an hour.

Last week, we witnessed the Labour conference in my hometown of Liverpool. Having grown up there during the days of the Militant-run Labour council, I didn’t share Dawn Butler’s rose-tinted view of what it was like. Most people I know were pleased to see the back of the Militant wing of the Labour Party – and yet now we hear that Derek Hatton is rejoining. In my view, Harold Wilson would have been appalled at what is happening to his party today.

Right now, it is definitely an interesting time to be an MP. During the conference, I will be using my platform to make the case for improving social mobility and access to the ladder of opportunity along with my colleague and friend, Justine Greening. Everyone is conditioned by their life experiences to some extent and coming from a traditional working class background in Liverpool, I certainly was.

In my case, I started work at 16 in a car factory in Kirkby as an apprentice. This changed my life, as it was what today would be called a degree-level apprenticeship, and I will be speaking on several platforms this week, putting the case for why we should be encouraging this route more in our schools and colleges. A business trained me and gave me experience that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, as there was no route to higher education from my comprehensive school in Knowsley.

I will also be making the case for more women to step forward and get elected to parliament, and I will be chairing the “Women in Business” breakfast. With two female prime ministers, I think my party is making pretty good progress – but more still needs to be done.

Of course, I’m expecting Brexit to feature during conference as we are in the final phase of the negotiations. I voted to remain in the referendum, but I now see my role as a practical leaver. To that end, I’m backing the prime minister all the way on her Chequers proposal. In my view, it seeks to make sure we leave the EU in as low risk a way as possible without crashing the economy in the process.

Despite what you read in the press and on social media, many of the people I talk to privately are full of admiration for the quiet, dutiful patience and leadership our prime minister has shown as she tries to steer our country to a safe place. One thing I’m certain of is that another referendum is not the right approach. Parliament now needs to resolve this issue and it is the responsibility of all MPs to put the best interests of those that elect us first. I still remain hopeful that both the EU and parliament will come to their senses and agree a practical deal when the final choice comes. The peril of navigating Brexit in a hung parliament is certainly not for the faint hearted!

The time for partisan politics and posturing from the television studios is over – jobs on both sides of the channel depend on it. What is needed now is a cool head and a large dose of common sense – but as my mother says, the trouble with common sense is that it’s not that common.

Gillian Keegan is MP for Chichester