BIG INTERVIEW: ‘I’m an accidental MP’ - Tonia Antoniazzi on her unlikely route to Westminster

Before entering politics, the Labour MP was a teacher, keen rugby player and, by her own admission, someone with “plenty of opinions”. But politics was never part of the plan.

“I didn’t think I wanted to go into the Senedd. I was quite happy being a head of department, but was looking for promotion,” she told The Morning Advertiser (The MA).

It was her younger brother who eventually prompted Antoniazzi to turn those opinions into action, signing her up to the Labour Party as a Christmas present before encouraging her to start knocking on doors.

Door-knocking gave Antoniazzi a new perspective and she later put herself forward for the Senedd, not expecting to be elected but seeing it as a good opportunity to gain experience. Then Theresa May called the 2017 general election.

“Lo and behold, the next year I’m on secondment and Theresa May calls a general election,” the Gower MP said.

“That’s how I ended up in Parliament. Literally an accidental MP. Totally and utterly an accidental MP.”

Like many new MPs, Antoniazzi was initially asked what issues she wanted to focus on, with health and education among the obvious choices. However, both are devolved in Wales.

Fighting injustice

“For me, I tried to find my niche,” she told The MA, adding this came through meeting constituents, visiting local breweries and pubs and discovering the myriad challenges faced by the sector.

Her interest in pubs and brewing eventually led to her becoming chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group (APPBG).

“When you see an injustice, you try to fight it and then it becomes a campaign, then you join an all-party parliamentary group,” Antoniazzi continues.

While she described her role as “very demanding and quite intense”, Antoniazzi admits she “absolutely loves” being chair of the APPBG.

However, her relationship with pubs began long before Westminster.

“I’ll never forget having an argument with my father [in the pub] when I was in my 20s,” she recalls.

“He refused to buy me a pint. He said: ‘I’ll get you two halves. You’re a lady and you shouldn’t have that.’

“I was like: ‘Dad, not being funny, have you seen the size of my hands? They’re bloody huge.’ A half a pint looked tiny in my hand.”

For Antoniazzi, the memory speaks to how pubs – and attitudes towards who they are for – have evolved.

“It’s about breaking down those stereotypes”, she adds. “Pubs have evolved and they’re there for everyone.”

Today, the pub also offers Antoniazzi something particularly valuable in a career where truly switching off can prove difficult.

“I can go into my local pub on my own, and there aren’t many places as an MP I will go on my own,” she says.

“But I can go in there on my own and have a really good conversation and not actually talk about work.”

Her drink of choice?

“I think the industry knows I’m very fond of red wine, but I do like a Guinness, zero or not zero,” she quips, adding another favourite is Felinfoel’s Cwrw Ddu stout.

Antoniazzi also rejects what she sees as outdated perceptions of pubs, something she has made her mission to change.

“I think the pub sector has been demonised,” she says.

“Why do people think going to the pub equates to drinking heavily? That is a myth I want to bust.

“Why can’t you go to the pub and have a low or no?”

However, the pub sector crusader is candid about the sacrifices involved in having a career in politics, particularly when it comes to family life.

Her son was just 12 when the 2017 general election was called and Antoniazzi reflects on feeling guilty about “not being the best mum I could be” during that time, especially while working away a lot.

Her mother, younger brother and sister-in-law stepped in to help care for her son, who is now 22.

“My mum, bless her, was just magic,” Antoniazzi adds.

Antoniazzi, whose mother sadly died last year, admits she has become more conscious of taking time away from politics, from pickleball and softball cricket with friends to simply putting holidays in the diary.

“This is such a serious, heavy job that, if I can make work a little bit light-hearted when things are really quite bad, I very much want to do that,” she says.

Despite Westminster’s combative reputation, one of the things that surprised Antoniazzi about a job in politics is most MPs’ ability to work together cross-party.

Bit of magic

“That is brilliant,” she tells The MA. “It’s the little bit of magic in Parliament that people don’t see because they only ever tune in for half an hour of PMQs, which is actually just a showcase of nonsense and not answering questions.”

Committee work, she argues, is where “all the hard yards are done”.

“It’s actually the engine house of Parliament and, sadly, people just don’t see it.”

That collaborative approach has followed her into the beer group, where she works alongside MPs from across the political divide.

And, almost a decade after accidentally finding herself in Westminster, Antoniazzi’s advice to anyone considering following her is simple.

“Never turn an opportunity down,” she says.

“Take every single opportunity that life affords you. If those opportunities are few and far between, go and seek them out.

“Have a career before you go into politics. Join a party of your choice. Be an active member of your party, but get yourself something that’s going to give you the life skills and experience.”

Because, as Antoniazzi knows better than most, careers do not always follow the route you expect.

“Being an MP is not necessarily a job for life in this political landscape. You have to be very pragmatic about it and make a difference while you’re there.

“Just go for it. Why not? If I can do it, anybody can do it.”