A senior Cabinet minister last night told for the first time how she was placed in a foster home shortly after she was born.
Esther McVey revealed she was a ‘Barnardo’s child’, spending her first two years in care with the charity.
Speaking about her early childhood for the first time, the Work and Pensions Secretary told the Daily Mail that she wanted to ‘give the message that anyone can succeed given the opportunity’.
Esther McVey (pictured, left, aged nine, with father Jimmy and, right, with her father) revealed that she spent time in foster care
Earlier she had hinted at her upbringing as she announced plans to work with Barnardo’s to help people leaving care find jobs. In her keynote speech to the Tory conference in Birmingham yesterday, she praised the charity for how it has ‘transformed the lives of millions of children and families across the UK’.
She said: ‘They provide unconditional support, without judgment, giving the space, time and help for people to get back on their feet.
‘As one of those children, and standing proud, thank you.’
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey today sensationally revealed that she once spent time as a child in foster care in a speech given to the Tory party conference in Birmingham
In an interview with the Mail last night Miss McVey, 50, revealed how she had been put into foster care as a baby after she was born to young parents. Her father Jimmy was 22, while her mother Barbara was only 18.
The former TV presenter said that after a couple of years in foster care she returned to her family in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby.
Miss McVey said: ‘I believe most people in their life will fall upon tough times at some point. I want to give the message that anyone can succeed given the opportunity.’
Although she had never spoken publicly about being fostered until last night, she previously told how her young parents were more like siblings, with her grandparents playing a large role.
‘It was a loving, happy time, but cash was tight and it was quite strict,’ she said in a local newspaper shortly after she was first elected in 2010. ‘I had to polish the shoes on Friday, then help peel the spuds.’
Her father briefly ran an ice cream van before becoming a scrap merchant, and then setting up his own construction firm, where Miss McVey was for a few years a director.
Praising the work of Barnardo’s children’s charity, Ms McVey, who was raised in a working-class family on a tough estate in Liverpool, thanked them as ‘one of the children they helped’
Miss McVey took a law degree at Queen Mary University of London before launching a television career that included a spell as a presenter on GMTV. She returned to Merseyside and set up her own marketing business after getting a master’s from Liverpool John Moores University.
In 2005 she unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in Wirral West before taking the seat five years later.
She started her ministerial career at the Department for Work and Pensions in 2012, but was the most high-profile Tory casualty of the 2015 general election when she was ousted following a union-backed campaign.
She returned to the Cabinet this year following a comeback in last year’s general election, winning Tatton in Cheshire.
Other famous former Barnardo’s children include designer Bruce Oldfield, author Leslie Thomas and former footballer turned TV host John Fashanu.
Under plans announced yesterday, ministers will work with Barnardo’s to provide care leavers with work experience at the charity’s high street shops. The Citizens Advice Bureau is also due to receive £39million to help Universal Credit claimants.
Miss McVey said: ‘As a Government we cannot think we can do everything for everybody so we have got to forge partnerships with these magnificent organisations to help people when they are in need and give them a choice of where they go to.
‘What we do, we do well, but Barnardo’s has been helping children for 150 years and they do it brilliantly. Let’s tap into their knowledge, kindness and expertise.’
She also used her speech to attack bullying and intimidation in politics. ‘Remember what John McDonnell said about me, that I should be lynched? Well he picked on the wrong woman.’