“I think the point is that the group are united”

What Steven asked Cllr George Perfect, the new Deputy Leader of the Medway Conservative Group.

Councillor George Perfect was elected to Medway Council in 2023, representing the Conservatives in Rainham North. Steven met the former Chair of Medway Youth Council at Starbucks in Chatham to discuss his quick rise to the front of local politics, the leadership of the Conservatives locally and nationally, and, of course, the Rainham red route.

Cllr George Perfect

Where were you born?
I was born in Gillingham, Kent.

Are your parents from the area?
They are, yeah. Well, my dad was born in Gillingham too. My mum was originally from Canterbury but moved to Medway when she was young because her father was in Kent Police.

What jobs did your parents do growing up?
Both my parents work in retail. My dad's always been in automotive retail. He currently works for a large group, leading on selling used cars. My mum works for a large retail brand.

How did you find school and university?
I enjoyed it. I went to two local schools, Fairview Primary School in Wigmore and then Robert Napier in Gillingham. I had a positive experience at both of them. Because of my age, I have a slightly stronger memory from Robert Napier, which I still go back to fairly often. I have a great relationship with the staff. I have lots of friends from there, still live in the area, still see a lot of them. Very positive, very lucky to have had such an inclusive but also caring school experience for me.

Did you study at sixth form?
I did, yeah, at Robert Napier. I did Politics, History and English. All very humanities-based subjects.

And then on to university?
I studied at the University of Westminster. I was a commuting student. I still lived in Medway, and then I commuted into Regent Street, which is where the main campus is. Again, I had a really positive experience. Very lucky to again attend a really inclusive and positive university just a couple of years ago. My degree is in politics and mainly focused on British politics, but some international relations and political systems, looking at, for example, the Westminster system for the UK, but also other systems around the world. It was very much a politics-focused degree.

What political parties have you been a member of?
I got involved in the Conservative Party when I was 16. Prior to that I got involved in the referendum campaign. I campaigned with Leave and some parties locally that were part of the Leave movement. Then, after the referendum, I joined the Conservative Party.

What was it about Leave that you joined up for?
I was very young at that point. I got involved really because here in Medway, we'd seen the impact of the European Union. A large part of our residents were pro-leaving the European Union and I think it was a right decision at the time that we needed to take because people weren't happy with decisions that were being taken. They wanted to see that change, and obviously, that was delivered in this parliament by Boris Johnson in 2019.

Was it a natural progression for you from the Leave campaign to joining the Conservative Party?
I think the Conservatives hadn't been as pro-leave as other parties had been, but after the campaign, I saw from Theresa May that leadership and that commitment to leave the European Union, which is why I joined the party.

In your time as a member of the Conservative Party, who has been the best leader?
Rishi Sunak. I think he's doing an incredible job. He's committed to a plan, he's got a brilliant team around him. I've had the opportunity to not only meet the Prime Minister but also see some of his team in action and he's somebody deeply committed to the role, deeply committed to the job. I think has done an incredible job both as Chancellor and now as Prime Minister that sometimes he doesn't get the credit for.

Considering the stories in the media, would you say that the party should stick with him?
Yeah, absolutely. The Prime Minister's the man for the job. I think he's proven that time and time again, whether it be through his work during the pandemic, particularly on furlough, where he managed to save over 11 million jobs, whether it then be when he became Prime Minister, through getting inflation down, through building a plan, building a team that worked, or indeed through his latter work in terms of the deal with Albania and the work that he's doing to reduce a third down in terms of boat crossings in the past four months. He’s doing a great job, and the party's got to get behind him because he is a good Prime Minister.

Looking at what has happened since, in hindsight, do you still stand by campaigning to leave?
Absolutely. The Prime Minister himself campaigned to leave, I campaigned to leave. I think it was the right decision. I think we made that decision, I think it was made several times in fact. We had the 2016 referendum, we had the 2017 General Election, we had the 2019 General Election and people overwhelmingly wanted to get Brexit done as was in 2019. I think that was absolutely the right decision.

Can you think of any benefits that have come from that?
It's been a difficult time because we've had, obviously, the pandemic, which was a very difficult period. We left the European Union, and then we had the pandemic just a couple of months afterwards. But I think we're starting to see some of those opportunities that are coming as part of that. Some of the withdrawals, some of those EU laws that we're diverging on, which has been a focus and obviously some of the work that's been going on in terms of those new trading arrangements, whether it be the work that Lord Johnson's been doing in the Department of Business, we've got new deal Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership that we've got. We've also got other rearrangements, whether it be with Australia, that the former Prime Minister obviously signed, so we've got lots of deals coming forward, and I think they're having a positive impact as well.

What was your first full-time job?
My first full-time job is the job I'm doing now. I'm a public affairs consultant for a public affairs company, which effectively is PR and communications in the built environment sector, property, and development.

What additional roles, paid or unpaid, do you do?
I'm obviously deputy leader of the opposition and councillor for Rainham North at Medway Council. I am a member of both the Beyond Schools Trust and the Inspire Partnership Academies Trust and I’ve previously been a chair of governors and a vice chair of governors of others.

What is your average day entail?
Normally it starts in very early. It depends if I'm working. My day job office is in London. If I'm in London, it's a very early start, usually up on the train. Full day in the office, meetings etc. Then I'll be back, normally council stuff every evening. If I'm working from home, I normally work from home in the daytime, meetings early in the morning, 8 o'clock in the morning. It's always very busy and intense every single day. Lots of emails, lots of calls, lots of hours, but it's all endurable.

What do you do to wind down?
I'm a keen swimmer. I have a non-negotiable, which is every Sunday I go swimming. That's never negotiable. I always do that every Sunday, in a swimming pool. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. And yeah, they're really my sort of hobbies, so to speak. But politics was my hobby at one point, and then it sort of evolved.

What was your reaction when you heard that Councillor Turpin had stood down as deputy leader?
I think it was disappointing. To lose any colleague within a political group is tough. I'm not going to pretend that we find that easy. We've worked together, she was our deputy leader. It was very disappointing.

Councillor Turpin stood down, you stood unopposed. Why don’t people in your group want to be deputy leader?