The most torrid post-war period in politics has arguably been from 2010 to today. No one is better placed to give an insider’s view than Rt Hon. Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, who came into Parliament in the wake of both the financial crisis and the expenses scandal to experience at first hand the incredible highs and lows of the events that would follow.

From working cross-party on reform of the European Union to taking to the stage at Wembley as a key figure in the Leave campaign, through two leadership campaigns, Cabinet intrigue, squaring off against an increasingly erratic Speaker, founding a campaign to give babies the best start in life and securing a landmark Spending Review settlement, Andrea Leadsom’s story tracks the pleasures and pitfalls of a career in politics.

As a lifelong optimist, Andrea argues that political careers don’t have to end in failure, and in this very personal and educational account, she gives a real insight into the daily goings-on with spads, ministers, civil servants, parliamentary colleagues and the media to argue that political careers don’t have to end in failure.

Andrea puts the reader in the room to let them experience what it was really like, how it felt to be in those extraordinary situations, and how, like a game of snakes and ladders, it is often about getting yourself into the right place at the right time.

RT HON. DAME ANDREA LEADSOM dbe mp has been the Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire since 2010. She has served in government as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She is currently serving as the government’s Early Years Healthy Development Adviser.