“I'm pushy, and I like people pushing me as well”

What Steven asked Tris Osborne, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Chatham and Aylesford

Tris Osborne has been a Medway councillor since 2011 and is now standing as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Chatham and Aylesford. Steven met with Tristan in a cafe outside the constituency to discuss why he is running for parliament again, whether Labour hates motorists, and just how many social media accounts he’ll be running during the campaign.

Tris Osborne

Where were you born?
Truro, Cornwall.

What brought you to the Medway Towns?
I moved to the Medway Towns aged 3. My mum was a dentist, and she got a job in King's College, London, working for the NHS, and my dad was a head of department at MidKent College in the building team.

How did you find school?
I really enjoyed school. I went to St. William of Perth Primary School, which is on Canon Close in Rochester. Loved my experience there. It's a Catholic school. Even though I'm not a Catholic myself, it gave me a good footing. I then got a choral scholarship for Rochester Cathedral. I went and sang for my supper, so to speak, for five years. The church paid for my school fees. I enjoyed that, did lots of choir tours. I still go back to the alumni events. Then I stayed at King’s, I got an assisted place, and I became an academic scholar.

Where did you go to university?
My initial university, where I did my bachelor's degree, was Durham. I wanted to move away, see a bit of the world, get a bit of independence, find myself, and I did. I really enjoyed my time there. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I stayed on to do a Master’s.

What did you study for your undergraduate degree?
I did natural sciences and that's when I began to get really interested in politics. I did biology and geography. I sort of did a joint honours degree, but I also did some modules in politics in my first and second year and that's where I got my the bug, so to speak. I became chair of the Labour club during 2003, and they sponsored me to become an officer in the student union. I was Vice President, in charge of finance and services, looking after the night clubs and vending machines and other exciting things that were happening at the time.

And for your Master’s?
My Master’s was in Business and Management. I did that at the business school there. I stayed at Durham, though I lived in Newcastle.

What led to that change?
I wanted to get more experience of running businesses, understanding how they work, profit and loss, improving services. I really enjoyed managing staff as well. That decision was made because I wanted to get more grounded knowledge of how to go and work in that space, and that's ultimately why I ended up working in the city because I made that decision at 24 or 25. I wanted to go and do something in financial services, in a more human resources related function.

What’s your official occupation now?
I'm a lead practitioner at a secondary school. Effectively a schoolteacher.

What led to that move from the business world into teaching?
That's a really good question. I did a few things. I worked in the city for about seven years. It was great, I travelled the world. I did stints in Hong Kong, New York, six months in both locations. I really enjoyed both in my twenties because you get to travel around a bit. I then got selected for the Labour Party in 2012 as the parliamentary candidate for Chatham, which was at that time a target seat for us. It wasn't originally supposed to be a target seat, but the boundary changes fell through under the Cameron government, so it then became a target seat. I was very lucky in some ways with that. Then I made the decision to go into public affairs because I thought that would be better aligned to my political function and build relationships in Westminster, because I'd never worked in Westminster previous to that. I didn't really have any relationships. I used those three years to build those relationships with people that I would probably be working with later on. Really loved it there. I sponsored something called Labour in Communications. I did some events, and I did consultancy as well. Trying to get basically ministers in for breakfast and having conversations with them about policy. I enjoyed that, but in 2017, obviously, we lost the election. I'd lost another election because I ran for Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, which was a bit of a long shot, but given my background as a special constable, I thought I could offer something a bit different, and there was some change in the air with a new Conservative candidate.
I moved into teaching in 2017, and the motivation for that really is that I wanted to get out of Westminster. I'd done four or five years there. The party was changing, the leadership were more left than I was. Some of the relationships that I'd built were not as useful. And I just thought this is a good opportunity to go and do something which still works with people, but actually supports them in achieving their careers. Working with young people has been what I've done ever since. I don't regret that decision, I love being a teacher. I've worked in local schools in Medway, and I made a decision a year ago to work out of the area because I don't like the students seeing me in the newspaper.

As a teacher, is July the worst possible time for you to campaign?
I can say there would have been better times. I spoke to Jonathan Shaw yesterday about this, and he said, ‘We always knew that it would be May 1997 because we saw them winding down the clock,’ so they were ready for it. I always say if you're prepared, I think every time is good, and fundamentally, the party is in a good position. However, I was picked relatively late, as you know. It's in the public domain, I was picked on Thursday last week. I had to get my materials ready, but I can say the Conservatives have left it even later. It's not just us that have been in that position.

Will you be teaching while running for parliament?
I will. I've got exam groups. My A-levels are done, but I've got exam groups going through in the first week on Friday, so when we get back. I've got a year 11 cohort I need to manage through, and then they've got paper 3 the week after that on Friday. I'm afraid I'm going to be in that classroom. I don't want to get into details of the HR, but obviously, I've had to make the school aware of the situation and conversations around what they can do for availability, but that's subject to a HR process.

Do you have any other roles, paid or unpaid?
I’m a cabinet member of the council, portfolio for Community Safety and Enforcement. The enforcement role was beefed up, I made an argument that enforcement needs to be more than just liaising with the police. It also needs to include parking, licensing, all of the things where the council has sort of that function effectively given my former position as a Special Constable and an interest in criminal justice which is one of my interest areas. I love my portfolio. It's probably a contentious one because obviously challenging bad behaviour and parking is never going to make you popular with everybody. I'm leading on a couple of initiatives at the moment, some popular, some are not. All of them might be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective, but I'm very keen to deliver on things, and I'm pushy, and I like people pushing me as well.

What was it that made you a Special Constable?
This was originally in 2005, so between 2005 and 2007, I trained in London because I was living in London. I trained in Hendon. I then moved to Medway to live with my mum, but I still wanted to be a special in London. They effectively sponsored you, and at one point when I was like 23, I thought police sounded interesting as a job, but I never got in. I did apply, and I didn't get in. This was a Durham constabulary, and they just said no. I've always been interested in it, and it's a community service. I wasn't elected at the time so I thought it would get some good experience of just the world seeing how things work. I did that for a period of a couple of years, but unfortunately, I had to stand down because you can't be a councillor and police officer in the Met. I really enjoyed it. I have to be careful how much I say because, obviously, some of these are cases that we have to deal with, but there were some real-life experiences I gained from that. I saw some things that were unpleasant. You know, it is what it is. Policing is really hard. It was very paperwork-heavy at the time as well. That's something police will always say, but I've got some good relationships from it, and I really enjoyed it. I encourage anyone to go and do it if they have the time and the commitment.

How did you first come onto the ballot in Medway?
I stood in 2007, that's when I had just moved back to the area. I was originally picked for Rochester West, which is where I was living at the time, and then they moved me to Strood North, probably about six months before the election, because I had a good relationship with the councillor there. It was also more of a target for us, and in 2007, we were the only seat in the country which went against the trend. We actually took a seat in Strood North in 2007, we did win a seat from the Conservatives in that election. That was a good training ground for me. In those days, we were running a defensive campaign. I think we were targeting two seats that we could potentially take, but the rest was defensive because we'd been in power for 10 years. There was quite a lot going on. I think Blair had just announced he was quitting. It was a difficult election cycle for us. Cameron was obviously one year into the job and making a case for change, which was compelling. There were issues going on at the time around the succession for Blair too.

Was it the next election that you then stood in Luton and Wayfield?
I originally was going for the by-election. There was a by-election in Luton and Wayfield in 2009. However, there was a more suitable local candidate, someone who was from the area, and then we were running a big schools campaign at the time to stop a number of primary schools being closed because the demographics were showing that we actually needed to open primary schools. It was a bonkers council position. I worked very hard on that local election result. Unfortunately we lost by 10 votes, which I will always remember. I put my name in the hat, and with the support of the MP at the time, who recognised I was a young candidate coming through and that the council needed a bit of a change with some youngsters, there was an acceptance that we needed some new blood. Vince Maple sponsored me as well. He was a friend of mine, and I got elected in 2011.

What led to you changing your ward to Rochester East in the last local elections?
In short, Medway went through a cycle through the independent process around looking at boundaries. This is due to the fact that there were new boundaries in Medway where we've seen urbanisation. More people have moved into the area. There needed to be a shuffle to ensure that we had the right number of voters to councillors. Medway is growing. There were some boundary changes which were considered and consulted upon. And unfortunately, my ward in Luton and Wayfield was a victim of this. The ward was split into two, with Luton being one ward and Wayfield and Weeds Wood being the other. The way the Labour Party selection processes work, it had to be a man and a woman in Luton. I got on really well with my colleagues. Jo (Howcroft-Scott) and Simon (Curry) were brilliant, and I made the decision, given I'm from Rochester and I know the patch quite well. I lived in Rochester for some time, and I live on the border of it now. I thought it would be sensible for me to put my name in the hat there, and fortunately, I was picked.

As a long-term resident, did you ever think about standing for this election in Rochester?
I was a councillor in Chatham for a lot longer. Lauren (Edwards) and I are very close friends and ward colleagues. I can say she is absolutely fantastic. Her background in the Bank of England is just perfect. She is articulate and I think she is the best candidate for Rochester. I supported her campaign. I was one of her endorsers. I'm really happy that they've got the best candidate for the job.

You said before that when you stood in Chatham in 2015, it was a target seat. What has changed so that it is no longer a target seat?
Like all the Medway seats, the 2015 election didn't go our way. The Tory majority increased to about 10,000 at that point. Most of the North Kent seats went the same direction. 2017, there was a slight movement back to us again. But again, we lost by a significant five-figure margin. In Medway, we were miles away from winning. And we need to be honest about that. This was not a good result for us in Medway. 2019, the result was terrible. And I think fundamentally, I attribute the current majority to four facts. First of all, they had a good MP. I say this about Jonathan Shaw, but Tracey Crouch is very similar. Very personable, on the ground, independent spirited and minded, and she worked very hard. If I could do the same job in terms of public persona and profile, then I'd be very lucky.
Brexit. This area, North Kent in particular, was very heavily a Brexit voting area. I think that factored quite heavily into how people made their decisions, and we saw big majorities in Gillingham and Rochester at the time. Secondly, the Corbyn effect. I know there were lots of supporters in Medway, and people worked very hard in that election, but fundamentally, the conversation on the ground... You need to convert middle-ground voters. And they were not converted, I'm afraid. I was on the news that election evening. I did some broadcasts, and it was not a good result. I got hit for it by some people saying that I was letting the side down but actually the result was the result and we again we have to acknowledge that we did not win, and we need to win areas like this fundamentally.

How many social media accounts will you be running during the election campaign?