Finding a Seat

Tales from the Green Benches: An Oral History of Parliament

For many MPs the hardest part of a political campaign is not a General Election, but actually being chosen by your party to contest a seat.

In this episode Emma and Alex take a closer look at the selection process- exploring what parties wanted from their candidates, how a certain type of seat could affect your parliamentary career, and how some MPs from our period (1950s to the early 2000s) were able to bypass a standardised selection process altogether…

Presented by Dr Emma Peplow and Dr Alex Lock, produced by Melissa FitzGerald at Zinc Audio. With additional writing from Dr Priscila Pivatto and script editing from Connie Jeffery. All interviews are deposited at the British Library. Find a catalogue of interviews on our website.

Artwork by [e-mail].

Find more from the History of Parliament Trust at www.historyofparliament.com and follow this link to find information about our publication ‘The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs’.

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More information:

British Library Reference Codes:

Michael Heseltine interviewed by Michael Greenwood, C1503/0054

Timothy Kirkhope interviewed by Henry Irving, C1503/0084

Dick Taverne interviewed by Jason Lower, C1503/0006

Kenneth Baker interviewed by Michael Greenwood, C1503/0013

Teddy Taylor interviewed by James Freeman, C1503/0003

Michael Barnes interviewed by Philip Aylett, C1503/0076

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