I’ll ensure banks and financial services executives are held to account for their actions as Treasury Committee Chair
2 min read
My business experience and non-partisan, straight-talking approach will be an advantage to the whole House as Treasury Select Committee Chair, writes Kevin Hollinrake
Parliament is a better place for being made up of people who have experience of the real world. Business people, lawyers, farmers, doctors, nurses and teachers can all bring their own first-hand knowledge to debates and the decision-making processes needed to help create the strong economy and fair society we were elected to deliver. This is why I have thrown my hat in the ring for the key role of Chair of the Treasury Select Committee.
I know what it is like to work night and day to set up a company from scratch and for it to be within a hair’s breadth of collapse. It happened at the height of the financial crisis as my estate agency, Hunters, came close to going bust largely owing to the widespread economic malaise and its catastrophic impact on businesses like ours, but also because of the lack of patience and increased charges we faced from our bankers. Thanks to the combined efforts of all the directors as well as dogged determination and hard work, we did manage to turn the business around. In 2015 it was listed on the London Stock’s Exchange junior market, AIM.
I have not hesitated, as co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Business Banking, to draw upon my own personal experience to fight on behalf of other small businesses to win compensation from their banks for mistreatment. I am determined to see banks and financial services executives held to account for what they have unashamedly done to business people, who have invested everything and lost it all at the hands of these big institutions.
Whether it is banks or Brexit I will not shrink from a robust factual analysis of government plans. I hope that my non-partisan, robust, Yorkshire straight-talking approach will be an advantage to the whole House.
Kevin Hollinrake is Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton
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