Claire Perry MP as she appears on the cover of The House

The Member of Parliament for Devizes (and Marlborough), Claire Perry, graces the front cover of the current issue of The House – ‘parliament’s weekly magazine’. She’s given a lengthy interview to Sam Macrory which features two prominent photographs.

Mrs Perry describes how she rejected politics at Oxford with “all those really sad, awful people.” She only went into politics after a fifteen year career in banking and finance, nine of them working in New York.

Then, in semi-retirement with her children, she met George Osborne at a fund raising event and quickly joined his staff, working four years as one of his full-time policy advisers.

How did she become an MP? “I stormed into the office and complained that we didn’t have any women who would stand up and talk about things, or talk about them enough. George agreed, and suggested I stand.”

Now she has one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

She tries to attend the Commons every day – concentrating her fire-power on “pounds, prisons, and porn.”

Macrory suspects that if she is to get promotion during this parliament, it will be to a job on the Treasury ministerial team.

She shrugs off the rumpus about the time she crossly asked aloud whether to get chosen to speak in debates she had to offer what Macrory coyly calls ‘sexual favours’ to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

“It was rather embarrassing, given it was a private conversation, but it has played really well.” And the Speaker “found the whole episode hilarious – I had a nice chat with him and thinks it’s fine.”

Claire is clearly getting the hang of the quirky relationship between the media and the politicians. And if she ever gets it wrong, she has good advice on hand at home.

“I want to go on a canal boat holiday, but my 11-year-old daughter said: ‘Mummy, if you think we are going on a canal boat just for you to put out a press release, then you’re wrong’.”

Claire adds: “She’ll be prime minister one day.” After her mother?