NIGEL Evans this week celebrated 25 years as MP for the Ribble Valley. He talked to local government reporter Bill Jacobs who has covered his career throughout.

FEW politicians have had quite the rollercoaster ride of the man who is now East Lancashire’s most senior member of the House of Commons.

In March 1991 his career seemed to have crashed before it began when he unexpectedly lost the safe Conservative seat to Liberal Democrat Mike Carr.

Party members questioned whether the young man with two defeats in safe Labour seats in his native Wales to his name could ever win an election.

Just 13 months later, he claimed victory in the constituency by 6,542 votes, a result he still keeps on his mobile phone.

His Euro-sceptic views cost him a ministerial career under John Major and in May 2013, by then deputy speaker of the House of Commons, his world fell apart again when he was arrested and then tried, for rape.

A little over a year later, the Swansea-born newsagent was acquitted and began to rebuild his life winning Ribble Valley again in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv-Pl4VUjzY

He said: “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up again.

“I’ve never been a man to walk away.

“Someone sent me some words about Christopher Columbus that I treasure: ‘Nobody would have blamed him for turning back but no-one would have remembered him either’.

“I am proud to have been MP for the Ribble Valley for 25 years and I cannot thank its people enough for the support they have shown me through good times and bad.

“My role is to bang the drum for Ribble Valley in Westminster not bang the drum for Westminster in Ribble Valley.

“Finding myself as the senior East Lancashire MP after towering figures like my predecessor David Waddington and Blackburn’s Barbara Castle and Jack Straw is a surprise.

“Like being an MP for 25 years, it just happened. Where has all the time gone?”

Sitting in a Clitheroe cafe, a quarter of century after his political resurrection and three years after his personal redemption, a relaxed Mr Evans reflected on his career.

Asked about his worst moments, there is little surprise.

He said: “The defeat in the 1991 by-election after a very nasty campaign where some candidates branded me the Welsh incomer.

“And the trial. I knew if I was found guilty I could go to prison.

“I was amazed at the support I got both from colleagues at Westminster and from people in the Ribble Valley, by no mean all Tories.”

His best moments are more surprising.

Two are winning the seat in 1992 and the Brexit referendum victory. Not the day he was acquitted.

He said: “I felt enormous relief but no pleasure.

“It had ruined my career after becoming the first-ever elected deputy speaker of the House of Commons.”

The third is unexpected.

“It was when I raised the question of two of my constituents whose honeymoon was under threat because of the passport backlog in 1999 with then home secretary Jack Straw", he said.

“I asked him if he could guarantee they would get their travel documents in time for their wedding.

“He said ‘yes’ as his civil servants in the box in the Commons went white.

"Jack came up to me afterwards in the lobby and asked for their details and they got their passports.

“That is Parliament working when you can come up to a cabinet minister, or even the prime minister, in the building and speak to them, as I have done to Theresa May over Brexit.

“This ability is why MPs should go through the voting lobbies in person not push a button.”

Mr Evans does regret some of the ways Westminster has changed over the years.

He said: “In my 25 years I have seen power either handed over to Europe or seep away to Brussels.

“Hopefully now we are leaving the European Union that power will come back and MPs can get back to doing everything they should do.

“I am not keen on family-friendly hours, starting and finishing early.

“I think we should return to the old system so we have more time for select committees which can be really important.”

Asked about regrets, Mr Evans who came out as gay in 2010, has a couple.

He said: “I wish I had not voted for the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 which gave way so much power to Europe.

“I regret not coming out as gay earlier. I was child of my time and it was hard enough admitting to being a Tory as a teenager in South Wales.”

He now describes his personal life as ‘content’ although there is no sign of the domestic bliss he had hoped for when I spoke to him three years ago.

Turning to the future, Mr Evans is optimistic and hopes he can stop the latest Parliamentary boundary review from carving his constituency in two.

He said: “Whatever happens I intend to stand again in 2020, there is still a lot to do.

“I intend to do all I can to defend the Ribble Valley from even more housing developments.

“It is one of the most beautiful places in the UK so I understand why people want to live here but we must keep it that way.

“The Ribble Valley is where I live, where my heart is and where I intend to be buried.”