From starting her own business at the age of 19 in High Street Fashion, we asked Baroness Verma what made her get into politics. Verma stated, “My catalyst is to actually be able to do what I'm doing today. So in the ministry that I'm in, at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, it is looking at how government policies impact on people and particularly those people that tend to not be so engaged with politics and policies. People will live in houses that could well do with sort of policies around eco around making sure their homes are better insulated, because a lot of our elderly stay at home. So they have to have the heating on, they have to have the light on. How do we make sure that they are better protected against extortionate bills, badly insulated homes? It was those sort of things that made me want to come into active politics.”
Verma goes on to speak about the challenges in getting landlords to comply with the regulations and what she aims to do. “I think one of the things that we are going to be doing is looking at the private rented sector to make sure that the landlord are able to bring in those measures that social landlords are able to do as well as private home owners are able to do, so that they can make sure that the home that they rent out to the private sector are at least the sort of standard you would expect a household to be living in. I do think the important thing is that landlords in the private housing sector will be under the same sort of regulation as social landlord to ensure that houses reach particular standards so that people living in properties that is leaky, cold, inefficient and having to suffer quietly without the onus of the landlord having to do something about it.”
She believes that there is still miles to go before one can say that ethnic minorities are fully integrated into politics. “I think we've got a long way to go to make sure that the debate is a more informed debate for all people. But that also means people from the black and minority communities have got to get engaged with the debate.” Further on, “I think the fact that we have 19 [Asian Conservative MPs] is a good place to start from. But is it enough? No, of course it isn't. But what we need to do is make sure that people are encouraged to come into politics and how do we make that reach better, for all political parties- all political parties have got to answer to that call because we are a very diverse country. We do need to have diversity at the top to ensure that all views are reflected properly.”
Baroness Verma urges people to voice out their opinions and their and state their disapproval on matters in order to make amends and improvements. She also believes that there needs to be more information provided to the general public which would aid them in making a coherent and conclusive decision when it comes to voting. “If you don't go out there and raise your voice in concern then nobody will know why you're disaffected; it's upon us all. That is why it is really important that media like yourself look at the measures we are taking to make sure that we're actually able to have that informed debate so nobody goes into the voting box not knowing what parties are offering. But the main thing is we mustn't have voter apathy.”
