SPEECH THAT SHAMED ME INTO ACTION

Becoming a Cabinet minister in 2007 changed my life – because it forced me to come to terms with my stammer.

Once I was speaking regularly on TV or in Parliament, my occasional ‘blocks’ – pauses when I couldn’t get my words out – became a serious issue, so much so that the Conservative MPS opposite began to fill the painful moments of silence with loud jeers.

I didn’t believe it at first when

I was told I had an ‘interiorised stammer’, much like Colin Firth’s

George VI in The

King’s Speech [above].

And when my excellent and caring speech therapist told me things wouldn’t improve until I went public with it, I just laughed.

No way. Cabinet ministers can’t admit to a weakness. Politicians don’t do vulnerable.

It all came to a head when I attended the launch of a video for teachers at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering. Michael and I were deeply moved, watching this film as children spoke openly and bravely about their stammers. But afterwards, one of the dads confronted me.

‘You’ve got a stammer, and you don’t say or do anything about it. My son is so brave and I think you’re a coward.’ I winced inside, made my excuses and left. Back at my desk, I burst into tears – also not normal Cabinet minister behaviour. I wrote a personal letter to every child in the video to thank them, telling them that I had a stammer too and they were a great inspiration to me.

It was the turning point for me. I know now how much my stammer is part of who I am, that dealing

with it has given me the confidence to do many difficult and fabulous things since.