Meeting MR FIX IT

Sir Oliver Letwin stepped down as the MP for West Dorset in 2019, but his passion for the county he served for 22 years is as strong as ever

- Jess Morency

Having been re-elected to represent the constituency of West Dorset six times, it could be assumed that Sir Oliver Letwin was always the fortunate holder of a safe seat. However, at the beginning of his tenure in 1997 it felt anything but, as he explains when I visit him in his home near Beaminster, a sun-filled medieval longhouse surrounded by roses, clematis and a 360-degree view of rolling green hills.

“There’s a theory that you ought to choose your constituency on some deeply rational and systematic basis,” he says. “But actually, it was memories of happy times spent in Dorset that largely influenced me to apply. And in those early years it was always touch and go whether I’d be re-elected. There was a very strong Liberal show and little Labour to dilute the vote.”

As a child, many of Sir Oliver’s holidays were spent on Purbeck, while his wife, Isabel (currently the Legal Director of the Ministery of Defence) spent equally happy times in Lyme Regis. The couple married in 1984 and, together with their two children, lived for their first five years in Dorset in a small cottage in Kingcombe.

“I certainly feel that after 22 years I’ve mixed my blood with the place and we’re here to stay,” he tells me. “But it’s a love affair rather than an origin. Shortly after we arrived, I met a lady with whom I found myself slightly lost for conversation. So I asked how long she’d been in Dorset, she drew herself up to her full height, and answered, ‘700 years’.”