Labour MPs Josh Dean and Sarah Hall share their career paths, passions and plans with Herts and Essex High School students

Two Labour MPs told Herts and Essex High School sixth-formers about their career paths, passions and plans for the future.

Josh Dean and school alumna Sarah Hall – who were among the 231 new MPs from the party elected in Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide General Election victory last July – were visiting the Bishop’s Stortford secondary as part of its National Careers Week offering.

Mr Dean is the first ever Labour MP for Hertford and Stortford since the constituency was formed in 1983, having previously been represented in Parliament by Tory trio Bowen Wells, Mark Prisk – both of whom served for 18 years – and Julie Marson, who lasted just one term.

The new MP – who, at 24, is just six to eight years older than his audience of Year 12 and 13 students – explained his unconventional route to Westminster via Starbucks, recruitment and going to university post-Covid.

Sarah Hall, who followed in the footsteps of her father-in-law, Mike Hall, as MP for Warrington South, was delighted to be back in the school’s New Hall, having left Herts & Essex in 2000 after seven happy years there.

She was keen to share her journey into politics with students who were walking the same corridors she had more than a quarter of a century ago.

A spokeswoman for the school said: “In what one student called ‘inspiring’, Josh and Sarah enthused about their jobs as well as the job they have to do. They admitted to there being multiple challenges that need tackling but are committed to working hard to make a difference, especially for the young people of today and especially in the local area.

“Both Josh and Sarah impressed the sixth form and much of what they spoke about resonated. It was great to hear that politicians are very much engaged with young people locally and nationally.

“There were plenty of questions at the end of the assembly, with many of those enquiring about the best way to get involved in politics.”

Sarah Hall is the fourth former Herts & Essex student to have entered the House of Commons.

Conservative Dame Caroline Spelman (H&E 1969-76) served as MP for the Meriden constituency in the West Midlands from 1997 to 2019. She was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in David Cameron’s coalition Cabinet from May 2010 to September 2012.

Liam Byrne (H&E 1986-88), Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, has been in the Commons for 21 years. He served as a Home Office minister under Tony Blair and in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet from 2008 to 2010 first as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and then as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He also served in shadow junior ministerial roles under Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. He is now chair of the Commons Business and Trade Select Committee. He joined Herts & Essex in the sixth form for A-levels after doing his GCSEs at Burnt Mill in Harlow.

TV writer Alison Hume (H&E 1976-83) was elected Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby last July. After leaving Herts & Essex, she worked on the then local paper, Herts & Essex Observer, before moving on to freelance for national music magazines including NME. In television she is known for her work as creator and executive producer of CBBC series The Sparticle Mystery and BBC drama Rocket Man.