Rocket man

He is on a high after meeting the Dalai Lama, who is creating a bit of a stir on the street outside. But there is plenty crammed into this office to bring him back down to earth.
Photographs on the Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson’s desk reveal his passions: an aeroplane, (he has a pilot’s licence) and his fiancée Gabriela Irimia, of Cheeky Girls fame (‘I’m very pleased she said yes’). Alongside are pictures of Mars, in memory of his astronomer grandfather (‘I carry on in politics what he did in science’) and a whiteboard offering a glimpse of his latest housing visits.
The Montgomeryshire MP is fresh from a bout of campaigning for the Crewe by-election, which he says left him ‘breathless’. He managed to mix ‘by-election pleasure’ with policy business by visiting one of his favourite affordable housing developments, a shared ownership scheme run by south Cheshire-based Wulvern Housing.
‘I was really impressed with it,
because it reduced the cost to about £65,000 for a very good quality home,’ he says, words tumbling out in excitement. ‘They’ve got the strategy and the vision and the game plan and the ideas and embrace everything we would want in social housing.’
The 43-year-old reportedly chatted about his Cheeky Girl fiancée in Crewe town centre as he canvassed for Lib Dem votes. He argues that his blossoming status as a television personality on the back of starlet coupledom helps him connect with people otherwise alienated by politics. ‘I used to be quite shy about my private life, but it has been due to the impossible curiosity of the press.
‘I think where I’ve ended up is being fully comfortable with being the full person all the time. Sometimes, politicians have a political personality and a private persona, so they seem different in real life to how they are when they’re doing their job. For me, that’s far too much like acting.’
But he is irked by the image some may have of him as a parliamentary WAG, after appearing with his intended on budget game shows such as Mr & Mrs. ‘One of the mistakes that people make is thinking that because I go on live entertainment programmes that they can’t take my politics seriously. But it shows the naivety of the people who report that, because they don’t understand that a political narrative is different from a personality.’
Analyse this
Brought on to the subject of housing, a much more serious Mr Opik emerges. ‘There’s less carbohydrate and more protein in my housing now,
because I’ve been out there and it’s got technical,’ he says, in an attempt to explain his change of demeanour. ‘Housing is not squidgy. I like non-squidgy politics.’
Mr Opik says that masterminding his party’s housing policy has engaged a previously under-used part of his brain. He says his right brain, the visionary part that makes plans, has tended to be more in control than the analytical left side. ‘I’m very keen on the big picture stuff. That’s right brain thinking,’ he explains.
‘When my father saw me rewriting my revision plan for the eighth time, he’d say, “sooner or later, the best strategy has to degenerate into action”.
‘Maybe it’s because I’m more settled now, but I’m giving my left brain more space now. It’s a great opportunity to analyse things in a non-emotional way.’
The MP is currently stretching his left brain to the limit by whittling down his party’s 96 pages of housing policy to three. The policy will be built on three themes: environmental sustainability, sustainable housing markets and sustainable communities.
The Welshman has been rushing around the country seeking inspiration from housing initiatives and weaving them into his plans, as he broods over the party’s recipe for sustainable housing. He aims to hatch his plans over the next few weeks and air them at the Liberal Democrat conference in the autumn.
One idea he is toying with is converting a village in his own constituency into an eco-village, to test ways of reducing the carbon footprint of existing homes. ‘Either technology or the economy has to catch up with the government targets,’ he argues. ‘Even if every home was zero carbon, we would need to sustain sources of
energy. A proportion of housing has to be a net producer of power.’
To boost affordability and supply, he wants to convert redundant spaces above shops into homes, give councils freedom to reinvest their money in new home building and replicate successful shared ownership schemes.
‘The advantages of having shared ownership are obvious,’ he says. ‘I think it’s the most attractive approach on offer. The problem with shared equity is that there’s less in it for the sponsor.’
His blueprint also draws inspiration for sustainable communities from schemes like the east and south east Leeds regeneration initiative. ‘It’s a genuinely mixed design, so you don’t have rich people at one end and the poor people at the other,’ he
explains. ‘If you build in the wrong way, you create gang hangouts. If you build in the right way, you build meeting places for the community. I’m trying to understand if there are rules of engagement for these schemes and why it is that some seem to work and some don’t.’
Certainly Mr Opik is not your average politician. For a start, he doesn’t seem keen on party political fighting, describing junior housing minister Iain Wright as a ‘good friend’.
‘Me and Iain are in different tribes, but in the same game,’ he muses. ‘If you can take away some of the friction, you can use that energy in a more creative way.’
He has been at Westminster since 1997, having served as a councillor in Newcastle from 1992. He first found his political spark at a school debate in Belfast in 1975, defending Iceland in the cod war.
‘I won by 19 votes to 17 and was flushed with success,’ he remembers.
Eleven years after entering Parliament, he sees himself more suited to party president than leader. ‘I want to be the chief engineer, not the captain,’ he says wistfully.
‘I don’t think I’ve got the sense
of martyrdom to be the leader. If you’re president, you can have something of a life, while making sure the party is working effectively. I want to have a life as well as a job. Gabriela is really important to me and I want a family.’