Wes Streeting MP – One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up - Part of Derby Book Festival: Autumn Edition

Description

Wes Streeting might have ended up in prison rather than in Parliament. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, and his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner, spent time behind bars.

Brought up on a Stepney council estate, Wes’ teenage parents struggled to provide for him. In his memoir he brings to life the poverty, humiliation and incredible struggle they had.

He acknowledges it was the help and inspiration he received, especially from his paternal grandfather (also called Bill), that ultimately got him to Cambridge and then Parliament. He drew on the strengths he developed during his childhood to eventually come out, and to go on and face his now successful struggle with kidney cancer.

Wes will be in conversation with Navtej Johal, Midlands Correspondent for the BBC.