Jess Asato is the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney and previously was a Political Advisor to the late Dame Tessa Jowell MP. She gave this speech at our Celebrating Women MPs event in parliament in June 2023.
Thank you so much for inviting me to speak today. My inspirational MP is Dame Tessa Jowell who sadly died of a brain tumour five years ago. I was honoured to work for her for four years as her Political Advisor when she was a Shadow Cabinet Minister for The Olympics.
She was a rare example of a politician who was a dedicated constituency MP but also achieved great things in office. One of her favourite sayings, taken from Harry Truman, was – it’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care about who takes the credit. She spoke regularly about total unity of purpose, team spirit and an ethic of winning. And that ethos stood behind much of her success.
Sure Start was one of her proudest achievements. Before Parliament she was a social worker and was steeped in attachment theory – the idea that our life chances could be seriously altered in early childhood depending on how we are loved and nurtured as babies. Her passion was to ensure that mothers and babies were given a supportive environment to bond and Sure Start was born.
It was a huge blow when the political consensus for Sure Start dissolved. But instead of getting angry, she worked to secure a future for the nexus of her ideas and worked with Andrea Leadsom – a Conservative MP – to lead an All Party Parliamentary Group on the first 1001 days. Fast forward, and Andrea has introduced the Best Start for Life – a programme which while not as extensive as Tessa’s, still has at its heart the need to recognise the need to invest in early childhood.
Tessa was a great boss and deeply loyal. She would notice if her staff were flagging, and suddenly there was cake and tea next to you on the desk. Every week she would bring fresh flowers, so you could work in a heavenly scent of daffodils or lily of the valley. She was incredibly generous. Every year she would spend time in India to volunteer with one of her favourite charities, Magic Bus, and invariably she would bring back a beautiful silk scarf as a gift.
I had no idea how she did it, but she seemed to always have time for anyone, and this would extend to MPs from all parties to whom she would give her time and wisdom generously. Another of her sayings, taken from Abraham Lincoln, was that we must always look to the better angels of our nature. One day, when I was a bit cross about something, she simply said – how do we turn this negative energy into positive energy? Tessa believed that an undervalued quality in politics was empathy. She was I think the first trauma-informed MP – a phrase which has gained currency in recent years, but Tessa lived it. She had an instinct for understanding people, their quiet traumas, and how to nurture them through it.
She leaves such a huge legacy. A toxic wasteland in East London transformed into tree lined-boulevards, beautiful play areas, new schools and medical facilities, and of course the brilliance of the Olympics itself. A heady summer of achievement and hope. Even though she was in opposition by the time the big event arrived, she ensured that the original commitments she made ten years earlier were stuck to. There were signals that some countries were going to refuse to send women to take part. Yet she had committed that 2012 would be the first Olympics where women would represent every country. She did a marathon round of international interviews and used all of the connections she could to ensure the International Olympic Committee made countries fall into line. And the women came.
Her quiet diplomacy achieved so much but she wasn’t afraid to speak out for women when it mattered. She expressed concerns about size zero models at London Fashion Week, long before it was fashionable to do so and committed to regulating sexist adverts on the London underground – now taken forward by Sadiq Khan.
She was deeply committed to her constituency – and there is a Tessa Jowell Medical Centre in her honour as she fought for 20 years to build one. But as well as the bricks and mortar legacy that stand as tribute to her, she also inspired so many people to make a difference through political representation. Take Mahamed Hashi who worked at the Brixton Soup Kitchen – he said Tessa was “the first politician I ever came across who made me think they were human” and that he owed it to Tessa for encouraging him to become a Councillor. And she was unwavering in her commitment to my ambitions to stand for Parliament – she is the reason I stand here today.
Even when she was very unwell with brain cancer, she still fought to make the treatments she was receiving accessible to everyone. This reflected a guiding philosophy which she first spoke about in her maiden speech imploring fellow MPs to “ask themselves whether what they are deciding is what they would want for themselves or for their families.”
Five years ago this year, as her brain tumour took hold, Tessa summoned the strength to deliver a final speech in Parliament, to advocate for other cancer patients.
I watched with her family from the gallery. And I will never forget her final words. She said:
“In the end, what gives a life meaning – is not only how it is lived – but how it draws to a close…”
Tessa’s life drew to a close in the way she had always lived – with the courage to stand up for others.
She is very much missed and loved. And it has been an honour to share her story with you today. Thank you.