Adam Boulton: Westminster’s ‘nepo babies’ are here to stay – whether we like it or not
“It’s not who you are but who you know” is a saying often used to explain why those with family connections to successful people seem to have a head start doing well in the next generation.
In the US this phenomenon has led Gen Z to coin a new tag “nepo babies” as they list those in showbusiness deemed to have been given a big helping hand by family connections.
Regardless of the talent they have displayed in their own work, the inference is that they got there in part because of nepotism – those in positions of power and influence favouring their relatives, literally from the Greek Nepos, nephew.
It will always be noted that the actor Kate Hudson and film director Sophia Coppola, say, are the children, respectively, of the actor Goldie Hawn and the film director Francis Ford Coppola.
With emotions ranging from contempt and jealousy to admiration and awe, social media has extended the list of nepo babies to sport and politics.
Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn at the premiere of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Pic: AP)
“In tennis the ‘nepo babies’ are everywhere” was the headline of an article in the New York Times this week. Nobody can deny that numerous members of the Roosevelts, Kennedys and Bush clans have made it to high office.
The phenomenon or, as many see it, the problem of nepotism extends to British politics.
Since 2010 the House of Commons library has been keeping a list of MPs related to other current or former members.
In the current parliament, elected in 2019, 49 MPs are listed. That amounts to one MP in 13, 7.5% of the total membership of 650.
It does not count those who may have close relatives in the House of Lords, or first cousins in either house.
Of those currently in the Commons related by blood to MPs past and present there are 17 grandchildren, great-grandchildren nephews, nieces, great-nephews and great-nieces; 13 sons; 4 daughters; 3 sisters; 2 brothers; and one uncle. Currently there are also seven wives and five husbands, though that is a matter of choice rather than genetics.
Some of these have multiple connections. The inclination to dynasticism is not confined to any party. The former Labour cabinet minister Hilary Benn has five links, including to his father Tony Benn, the staunch Republican, a grandfather, two great-grandfathers and a brother who has revived the family title, Viscount Stansgate, in the House of Lords.
Intricate nexus of family connections
The best-connected Conservative is the MP for the Cotswolds Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown who has forebears in the Commons sharing the same surname going back four generations.
The most intricate nexus of family connections centres on John Cryer, currently chair of the parliamentary Labour Party. He is the son of two Labour MPs – Bob and Ann Cryer – married to another one, Ellie Reeves, who in turn is the sister of the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Three Conservative ministers – Victoria Prentis, Victoria Atkins and Andrew Mitchell – are the children of former Tory Ministers. “Red Princes” on the Labour side include frontbencher Stephen Kinnock, son of former leader Neil and Mr Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, son of Doug, now Lord, Hoyle.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle
The Father of the House, the longest serving MP, Sir Peter Bottomley is married to a former Tory MP, Virginia, and the uncle of a Labour one, Kitty Ussher. Sir Patrick Jenkin, the chair of the Liaison Committee, is the son of Patrick, a former cabinet minister now in the Lords, and married to another peer, Anne, who has had a leading role in selecting Conservative parliamentary candidates.
The political connections game is not limited to Labour and the Conservatives. Great Liberal families include the Asquiths, Bonham-Carters and Grimonds, some of whom are still active in the Lords.
For the DUP Ian Paisley Junior bears the name of his father, a former MP, MLA, MEP and husband of a peer. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is married to Peter Murrell CEO of the SNP.
Social media has exposed people’s backgrounds and made it increasingly likely that they will be pigeon-holed for them.
‘Magic circles’ of influence
Those who feel excluded from “magic circles” of influence are often resentful, especially when there is rivalry between circles – sometimes to comic effect.
The broadcaster Amol Rajan complained publicly about too many presenters at the BBC speaking with received-pronunciation accents, often picked up at private schools.
His Today programme colleague Justin Webb, who went to private school, countered that he thought there were too many people at the BBC with Oxbridge backgrounds. Rajan is a Cambridge graduate, Webb went to the LSE.
Charges of nepotism are taken more seriously than such narcissism of small differences. Ian Wooldridge, the author of The Aristocracy Of Talent: How Meritocracy Made The Modern World, argues that “the march of progress can be measured by the abolition of nepotism”.
Amol Rajan is a Cambridge graduate
Few would challenge his contention that “it can’t be good for democracy if representative positions are hogged by people who belong to a narrow, privileged caste”.
Yet anyone who becomes an MP must pass successfully thorough democratic selection processes.
First by getting on a party candidates list, then by being selected, and finally by winning an election. The factionalism of politics can mean that it is not always an asset to have well-known antecedents.
For a high-profile position such as an MP, which is heavily dependent on personality, it would be almost impossible to go “CV blind” – unless unnamed candidates were interviewed unseen behind a screen like on the old TV show Blind Date and at some orchestral auditions.
In many walks of life families want to pass a particular occupation or business down the generations. Children may get to know the ropes early. Speaker Hoyle says he first attended a Labour Conference as a babe in arms.
Long successions of nepo babies
In history the hereditary principle has frequently been the basis of social and political organisation. Monarchies, including the British Crown, are long successions of nepo babies, as are the aristocracies which often grow up under their patronage. Even the king-killer Oliver Cromwell made his son his heir as Lord Protector.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries British prime ministers came more often than not from the hereditary House of Lords rather than the elected Commons. Many prominent families also had control in constituencies effectively appointing family members as MPs.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the third Marquess of Salisbury, was the last prime minister to govern from the Lords, finally ending his third term in 1902. The keen meritocrat Ian Woolridge points out that the phrase “Bob’s your uncle” dates from Salisbury’s efforts ensuring that his nephew, Arthur Balfour MP was the next PM.
The Cecil family have rendered political services and held high offices at least since Queen Elizabeth I. The current Lord Salisbury, also named Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, was an MP and then a minister in John Major’s government.
He subsequently brokered the deal with New Labour, which kept seats in the House of Lords for a rump of hereditary peers, while drastically reducing their number. Viscount Cranbourn, the courtesy title by which he was then known, recused himself from standing to be one of the peers remaining in parliament.
It has not been, and nor will be, so easy to remove Westminster’s other nepo babies from their positions of power and influence, assuming that is what Meritocrats would like to do.
Jordan Bardella has had a makeover.
Like many in the new generation of right-wing European politicians, he has a neat haircut and sharply cut suits – now add to that glasses and some light stubble.
It’s all designed to achieve two things: clean up a historically toxic and racist far-right brand, and disguise his youth.
Bardella is only 30 years old, he has little life-experience outside politics, but he will be the next president of France in 2027 if new polls hold up.
The rebrand is working. For the first time this week, French polling company Odoxa predicted Bardella would win the presidency whatever his competition.
Bardella has a strong social media presence – 1.2 million followers on Instagram, 2.2 million on TikTok. It’s attracting a youth following who identify with this young pretender.
Bardella attracts plenty of fans wherever he goes
“We find that he thinks about us, about future generations, and that he’s trying to improve things for us,” a young girl told us as she waited for Bardella to arrive at the latest stop on his national book tour.
“We really feel like he’s there for us.”
“Everything he says is really good,” her friend added. “He’s got a bit of humour as well.”
Neither are yet old enough to vote. They will be by the time the next elections come around, though.
There are plenty of youngsters drawn to Bardella’s campaign
A platform for the presidency
Bardella’s new book, What The French People Want, is his snapshot of France today – told through the eyes of 21 ordinary French people, presumably carefully selected.
The collection of short stories paints a picture of a country that has drifted from its national identity. It is Bardella’s platform to campaign for the presidency in 2027.
We spent the day with him on his book tour (campaign launch) in the town of Vesoul in eastern France. It’s classic new National Rally territory.
The town has voted for the right-wing party in the last two elections, and its MP is another 30-something in the mould of Bardella.
“Sh*t, the enemy,” one person remarked when they overheard us speaking English. “Were you at the battle of Waterloo?”
Bardella’s book release comes less than two years before the presidential election, due in spring 2027
The reception Bardella got, especially among the young, was hysterical. For well over an hour as the rain started to fall, he was surrounded by a crowd shouting his name and barging their way into his line of vision for a valuable selfie.
Bardella took his time, flashing his smile for hundreds of photos, savvy enough to know that each one posted on Instagram or Facebook is free advertising for his campaign.
But not everyone’s a fan…
Vesoul is friendly ground for Bardella, but National Rally remains a toxic brand in many people’s eyes. Plenty of French do not want to see him become their next president.
As the light faded and Bardella moved from one market stall to another at the town’s annual fair he was suddenly attacked by a local schoolboy who threw flour at him.
Bardella was bundled into a nearby gazebo and quickly surrounded by advisers and security.
His assailant, a 17-year-old, was arrested and taken away by police who had otherwise been standing to one side as the circus rolled through.
Not everyone’s a fan of the young pretender
Bardella’s smart blue raincoat was now covered in white dust. The atmosphere turned as cold as the late November evening.
His security tried to stop us filming, flashing lights into our camera and physically threatening us as they escorted their man away through the now largely deserted market stalls.
“Next time I’ll beat you,” one of them shouted, wielding an umbrella.
Bardella’s social media channels would later make no reference to the incident. Follow him and watch them, and you would never know anything happened.
A short time later, cleaned up and in a change of clothes, Bardella was smiling again and posing for more selfies at a hotel in the town centre.
Has France had enough of ‘experts’?
Outside, hundreds waited in the cold and drizzle to get their copies of his book signed. The image of long queues around France is one that his social media team has pounced on.
Bardella has little to no experience outside of politics, having joined National Rally as a 16-year-old and dropping out of university. His youth and lack of another career is a criticism he dismisses with a well-rehearsed answer when I spoke to him between signings in a rare interview.
Bardella voting in last year’s snap parliamentary elections, which have caused chaos in French politics. Pic: Reuters
“That’s an argument I hear often from my political opponents, but only when it suits them,” he says.
“When the mayor of New York is elected at 34, the left applauds. When Gabriel Attal becomes prime minister at 33, the right applauds.
“I don’t believe age is any guarantee of effectiveness. For 30 years, our country has been led by people we were told were experts: people from elite schools, people presented to us as the brightest minds in finance. We can’t exactly say the results have been outstanding.”
Detoxifying the brand
He, and the party, have tried to distance themselves from the openly antisemitic and racist views of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, remains the party matriarch but is banned from running for office after being found guilty of embezzling funds earlier this year. She will appeal but if she loses Bardella is her chosen successor.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. Pic: AP
Bardella has visited the Holocaust memorial of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and severed links with the extremist AfD in Germany. But he stills holds what many would regard as extreme views on immigration, classifying it as “a major emergency” and vowing to abolish “droit du sol” – the automatic birthright to French citizenship.
“All European countries, including the United Kingdom, are realising that immigration poses a threat to the major balances of society and to European societies as a whole, because it creates tensions, fuels insecurity, disrupts our identity, and places an economic and social burden on public finances,” he says.
Backing for Farage
I put to Bardella the prospect that in a few years, he could be president of France and Nigel Farage could be prime minister of the UK – two of Europe’s biggest powers led by far-right leaders.
“I have a lot of respect for Nigel Farage, for his fighting spirit,” Bardella replied.
“I think he’s extremely solid. He has never wavered in his determination to defend the interests of the British people first, and I truly wish for the UK that he becomes prime minister.
“That’s a personal view, I’m not trying to interfere.”
Reform’s Nigel Farage – if you believe the polls, Britain’s likely next prime minister. Pic: PA
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Bardella has stopped short of proposing a “Frexit” but his views on the EU are clear, and Paris’s relationship with Brussels will undoubtedly change if he enters the Elysee Palace.
“Every time the European Union gets involved in something, it turns into a disaster,” he says.
“We handed agriculture over to the EU, it was a disaster. We handed energy over to the EU, companies are shutting down in France because energy prices and EU pricing rules have soared, especially since the start of the war in Ukraine. We entrusted immigration policy to the EU, again it was a disaster.”
He sees the UK as a major player in his vision for a reshaped Europe: “It is a great country, historically and geographically. I believe that in a Europe of nations, the UK would find a new role.”
And he is pro-Ukraine, telling me “a peace agreement cannot be made on Russia’s terms, because I do not underestimate, and no one should underestimate, President (Vladimir) Putin‘s intentions and ambitions”.
Bardella is capitalising on the dysfunction and deep unpopularity of Emmanuel Macron‘s administration. Four prime ministers in a little over a year have left the French public frustrated and disillusioned with the current leadership.
The country’s debt to GDP ratio is reaching crisis levels.
Bardella certainly presents something different and the French public, however sceptical, might just be fed up enough with the current generation of politicians to take a punt on him in 18 months’ time.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in the West Bank after they appeared to be surrendering.
Palestinians said the killings, which were captured on video and shown on two Arab TV channels, were carried out “in cold blood”.
In the video, the men were seen exiting a building and lying on the ground in front of Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Both men lifted their T-shirts and held their hands in the air, apparently to show they were not carrying weapons or explosives.
The soldiers then appeared to order the men back inside the building before they were shot.
A Reuters journalist in the area saw the men leave the building, appearing to surrender, and later, after hearing shots fired, saw Israeli forces standing near what appeared to be a lifeless body.
The men were identified as al Muntasir Abdullah, 26, and Yousef Asasa, 37, by Palestinian authorities.
Footage of the incident has been broadcast on Arab TV channels
What has Israel said about the incident?
A joint statement between the Israeli Defence Forces and Israeli police said: “Earlier this evening (Thursday), during an Israel Border Police and IDF operation in the area of Jenin, the forces operated to apprehend wanted individuals who had carried out terror activities, including hurling explosives and firing at security forces.
“The wanted individuals were affiliated with a terror network in the area of Jenin.
“The forces entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours. Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited.
“Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects.
“The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.”
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the military and police unit involved in the shooting had his “full backing”.
“The fighters acted exactly as expected of them – terrorists should die!” he wrote on X.
A Reuters journalist captured images from near the scene. Pic: Reuters
‘An outright extrajudicial killing’
But Palestinians and human rights groups say Israeli investigations in such incidents yield few results, with Israeli troops rarely prosecuted.
The Palestinian prime minister’s office in Ramallah also accused Israel of executing the men “in cold blood”, calling the shooting “an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.
Yuli Novak, the executive director of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, said: “The execution documented today is the result of an accelerated process of dehumanisation of Palestinians and the complete abandonment of their lives by the Israeli regime.
“In Israel, there is no mechanism that acts to stop the killing of Palestinians or is capable of prosecuting those responsible.”
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Israel’s military has scaled up its military operations in the West Bank since the October 7 Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to B’Tselem, which said the perpetrators were “granted full impunity by Israel”.
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