Under-fire for being ‘posh’ Westminster North Conservative candidate Joanne Cash insists…'My background is ‘ordinary’

Published: 9 April 2010
by TOM FOOT

JOANNE Cash has denied claims she is too “posh” to represent Westminster North constituency.

The Oxford-educated Conservative candidate posted a long article on her blog this week about her working-class roots.

She has come under fire in sections of the media for her Oxbridge education and being part of a cosy élite of Etonian-type Tories.

She said: “It is ironic to me that part of the legacy of 13 years of Labour government is an assumption by the Press that because I have done well I must be ‘posh’. You are entitled to know who I am, my values and why I hold them. My dad worked two jobs and together with my mum ran a newsagents when I was young. People in the village still refer to the newsagents as Cash’s. 

“Even when times were tough, we always had a summer holiday, progressing from the UK to camping in France.

“I and my sister and brother were educated at state schools, Tandragee Primary and Banbridge Academy in my case. I always loved school and threw myself into drama, debating and singing.”

Banbridge Academy is one of the best performing grammar schools in the UK – rated 93th in this year’s Times Top 100 Schools list – and every pupil is assigned to a house.

Ms Cash said: “It’s hard to convey the excitement mingled with disbelief when I, the eldest, was accepted to Oxford to read English… Whatever the reasons the truth is I am from an ordinary background and my roots are in the hard poverty that my grandparents knew as children and which my grandfather has opened up to me about as an adult. It is why social action is so important to me now.”

Ms Cash was called to the Bar in 1994, paying off her debts while working as a checkout girl, waiting tables and telephone sales. I will never lose the values my upbringing has instilled in me, like a strong sense of community and philanthropy. I am my chambers’ representative for the Bar Pro Bono Unit, taking on cases for those who cannot afford representation.”

She said she had only met David Cameron once and that she married her husband, Octavius Black, in a register office. 

She said: “Octavius is an Old Etonian. May heaven forgive him for the sin of a good education, but he did not know David Cameron at school because they were a few years apart.”

l THE former chairwoman of the Westminster Conservative Association, who quit so Joanne Cash could continue her push for parliament, is believed to be consulting lawyers.

Amanda Sayers was forced to step down after the Conservative parliamentary candidate threatened to quit during a meeting in February in Westbourne Park.

Ms Sayers was due to be promoted to president of the WCA at the meeting but was ordered to stand down after David Cameron intervened.

She is believed to have consulted leading defamation lawyers Davenport Lyons, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

Neither Ms Sayers nor the WCA was available for comment.