The fourth minister for the third sector made her debut at the NCVO summer reception on Monday. Tania Mason was there.
There is clearly some sympathy in the sector for shadow charities minister Nick Hurd’s comment yesterday about the ‘revolving door’ position of minister for the third sector, if the mood of the audience at the NCVO’s summer reception on Monday was anything to go by.
The annual shingdig, this time at Portcullis House rather than its grander cousin across the road, is always a good-natured affair, and the voluntary sector’s ‘leader’, NCVO chief Stuart Etherington, was in jovial form.
He was clearly pleased to have the opportunity to present the brand new minister, Angela Smith, to his subjects, trouncing Acevo’s claim that its conference tomorrow would be the minister’s first sector outing.
And Stuart judged the mood of the attendees perfectly with his tongue-in-cheek introduction: “And now let me introduce the new minister, Insert Name Here…” which drew hearty guffaws from a sector that has now embraced three different ministers since the famous Mr Ed (Miliband) was hauled away in July 2007.
Just two days into the job, Angela Smith had no announcements to make, so used her five minutes on the podium to ingratiate herself with those she will be serving by explaining that she has “some form” in the sector – 12 years at the League Against Cruel Sports, no less.
She’s also done some volunteer work, took part in Volunteers’ Week last week, and has known Etherington for several years, having met him when she worked for Alun Michael MP in the days before she became one herself. “It must have been a while ago because I was skinny and Stuart had hair,” she said.
She then spent a couple of minutes reminding everyone about the government’s support for the sector in the recession – the £42m action plan, the £16m hardship fund, and the £130m grassroots grants programme. (Clearly she hadn’t been adequately briefed to realise that the latter wasn't actually a recession response, but was announced as long ago as the start of the reign of minister number two, in July 2007, when banks still owned themselves and unemployment was below two million.)
And she finished with a flourish, on a positive note: “We want to work with you to make that good society that Stuart talked about. Whatever the challenges, we can achieve that.”
Then it was the turn of Tom Levitt, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Charities and the Voluntary Sector, to welcome the new minister to the fold.
He pointed out that there are in fact two Angela Smiths in parliament, but we can tell the difference by remembering that our one is Angela E Smith – “and E is for elegant, eloquent, enthusiastic, energetic, and estimable – oh and Essex” (she is MP for Basildon). “You can probably tell by the accent,” he added cheekily, to which Smith feigned insult. “Only the accent, of course,” Levitt said. “And the shoes,” admitted Smith. Ah – humour, good. She may well need that.
