We Are Power Podcast
The We Are Power podcast is the podcast for your career and your life. A weekly podcast with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice, and key leadership insight from amazing role models. The podcast not only aids your personal and professional development but also delves deep into conversations around Gender Equality and Social Mobility. Each week the We Are Power Podcast will bring you a new interview from a leader within the 100,000-strong We Are Power community, hosted by Simone Roche MBE.
We Are Power Podcast
How Kim McGuinness is Changing The North East, Her Inspiring Story Revealed
In this powerful episode, Kim McGuinness, the first Mayor of the North East, takes us on an inspiring journey from her working-class roots in Newcastle to becoming a trailblazer for the region. Kim shares how her upbringing, shaped by her father’s work in the shipyards and her mother’s dedication to family, fuelled her passion for social change. Encouraged by local MP Catherine McKinnell, Kim defied stereotypes and launched a career in politics, rising through the ranks from council member to Police and Crime Commissioner, all driven by her mission to create social mobility.
Throughout the conversation, Kim reflects on the North East as a land of opportunity, despite challenges like child poverty and the North-South divide. We delve into her transformative vision for the region, including investments in start-ups, public transport reforms, and strategies for empowering youth. Kim also opens up about the gender imbalance in politics, sharing candid insights into the misogyny and online harassment she has faced, while celebrating the progress towards equality and the importance of women in leadership roles.
This episode is a testament to the power of unity and collaboration. Kim highlights the collective efforts of northern mayors to tackle local issues, and offers a glimpse into balancing a demanding political career with family life, especially in a political-military household. With aspirations to elevate the voices of northern women and celebrate everyday heroes, Kim’s story is an inspiring call to action for all. Tune in to hear how the North East’s resilience and passion are shaping the future.
Chapters:
00:11 Welcome to the Podcast
01:03 Role Models in the North East
10:28 Empowering North East Youth Through Politics
18:16 Northern Mayors, Military Life, Podcast Dreams
26:19 Northern Role Models and the Sparkle Celebration
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Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. We are on tour in the Toon. We are over in the northeast of England and we are delighted to be here. We love it over here because it is jam jam packed with role models and today I'm literally joined by the queen of the northeast, kim mcginnis. I've been a kid I'm literally a girl fan of for years and years and equally, you have been such an avid, avid, active, intentional supporter of northern power women awards and we are power of the year, so I'm delighted to welcome the very first mayor of the North East, kim McGuinness. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. What an intro, honestly, what an intro. Welcome to the North East, welcome to Newcastle. We obviously are delighted to have you here.
Speaker 1:Oh, do you know what? We love it, and we've brought the whole team on tour as well, as we're hosting events galore and getting chat into some of the brilliant role models. So talk to me about you know. How is your upbringing shapes becoming there? How did you know it's not as easy we always talk about. There's never any one straight pathway. How did you get from here to here? Do you know? I've got no idea.
Speaker 2:I think really importantly, I must say that I never had any intention of being a politician and I still sometimes struggle and people say, well, what do you do I?
Speaker 2:still sometimes think gosh, I'm the mayor and you know I'm actually a full time working politician and I find that really it's not. It's not something that really is natural to me. It was very accidental that I ended up here, but I'm from the northeast, I'm from Newcastle, very working class background, and my dad worked on the shipyards like a lot of people, he was a scaffolder. My mom worked in sort of part time insecure jobs, like a lot of women now, and you know I had a very happy childhood, which you know. There were definitely elements of hardship but that definitely drove my politics.
Speaker 2:A unionised household that is in the North East. In the 80s and 90s it was a Labour house, although we weren't necessarily very political. So I was the first in my family to go to university. I was very lucky I stayed in the region to do that and then I went into work, first of all for HSBC. I did a bit of banking and then went into a bit of recruitment into the education sector, worked for students, students, unions, doing employment, employability, and then kind of back into the private sector and back to back to charities and I was doing well. I was perfectly happy in my, in my job and career.
Speaker 2:But I moved back to the northeast, having lived away for a while in 2013 and um. At the time, I thought that the government that we had, which was the coalition government, was terrible. I was seeing libraries and community centers closed, which was really difficult for a kid who relied on those things growing up, and so I got out and did a bit of campaigning. I'd always been a labor growing up, and so I got out and did a bit of campaigning. I'd always been a Labour member but hadn't done anything.
Speaker 2:Got out and did a bit of campaigning and eventually somebody said to me you should stand, stand for the council. It was our MP at the time. Well, she still is the MP. Catherine McKinnell said you should stand for the council and I said I can't do that. And I said I can't do that. It's not for people like me. You know, it's my image was people who were retired or people with loads of experience or or all of those, all of those um stereotypes. And she came back to me. She said you know, you, you really should. And I said no, I know, maybe it's another time. And then eventually, on the third time of asking, she said we really need you to stand for the council, and so that's kind of it.
Speaker 2:The rest is history. I did it, loved it. Um ran part of the city as the cabinet member of culture, sport and public health and then had did a similar dance around being the police and crime commissioner. When that opportunity came up, a couple of people said you should go for this because of the work that you're doing, and eventually I decided to. And then I suppose standing to be mayor was my my first very intentional move, to think I love this place more than anything, and my upbringing has been, you know, really it's been fundamental to my upbringing. I don't think I could have done what I've done if I wasn't from here, if I didn't care about this place, and you know I wanted to represent it.
Speaker 1:It's a proper DNA, isn't it? It's like literally that whole stamp right in there. You know made in the northeast made in the northeast.
Speaker 2:I always, I always say it and it's so unbelievably cheesy, like I'm really, I really love the northeast and you know we talk about that and you get a little bit of um, you get a little bit of political um. I suppose there's some people who will politically use it and say the word's a bit lightweight. You know, just all of this stuff about pride, what's the rest? Actually, that is a really important political statement that pride in place and the pride in where you belong to, and the pride in the people and to really deeply care about it. And I always say this place is the love of my life. Sorry to my husband.
Speaker 1:Oh, you had to add that in quick.
Speaker 2:And the dogs?
Speaker 1:we'll get onto the dogs later you were the first person in your extended family to go to uni, weren't you? And what was it about that that made you think? Well, actually this is all about.
Speaker 2:This is going to really motivate me to go on and create opportunities it's really funny because I kind of gave you a quick canter through my career there, but a lot of the work that I did was either directly or indirectly about social mobility and about, you know, taking working class kids like me and making sure that they had the best possible opportunities.
Speaker 2:And actually I've been pretty honest about the fact that university for someone like me back then was quite hard, and I am definitely a product of that government that said, 50% of kids should go to university and we should enable kids from working class backgrounds to get into the right place. I'm really grateful for that and that university education has been amazing for me and some of the experiences that I had around it, but it was really really difficult at that time around it. But it was really really difficult at that time and for me now our job is to make it so that whatever choice you make whether it is university or whether it's an apprenticeship or whether it's to go into a job and work your way up you shouldn't feel uncomfortable because of your background and actually all routes should be available to all people. So I'm really grateful I had that chance, but I also don't think that everybody should do it the way that.
Speaker 1:I did it, and that's the whole thing. There's not about copying someone else's you do you right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely you do, you, and I think it is perfectly possible. And you kind of see this across the breadth now of the political landscape and in really senior professionals it has become ever more possible to succeed with a wide range of backgrounds. But there is still those divisions and they still exist, and you know we've got to batter them down at all costs, because talent is really classless. It's classless, it knows no place. You know you can be talented wherever you are from in this country, in the world, but opportunity isn't, and so that is the bit that I think you know we have got to really go after and attack and break down and batter those barriers and really make it so that everybody can succeed regardless and I totally agree with you that there's not opportunities for all and that's the battle we've we've got to fix, isn't it, you know?
Speaker 1:but that the talent comment you made there is that you know, talent is talent, but equally, for me, everyone is a role model to someone you know and I think if we role model that you can, yeah, yeah, and there is an opportunity, and that's so important, the role model, piece.
Speaker 2:I find it really uncut. It's really funny because you introduced me you said you should role model. I find that really uncomfortable because I just think I'm just a normal person and, you know, actually think that the thing that makes me good at what I do is that I'm a normal person and I get it. I know what it's like to be here, to grow up here. I know what the day-to-day experience is like. I understand the place and the fabric of it and the people and you know I never want to lose that.
Speaker 2:But if you ask me who my role model is, it's my mum, which I think is really really common for sort of working class women, particularly northern women, because we've seen our mams cope with unbelievable things. You know. We've seen them manage families through really difficult economic circumstances. We've seen them manage on practically nothing. We've seen them battle for us and really make the difference. We've seen them be key and a massive part of their community and actually none of that identity, none of those things in my mind, has anything to do with that, with her actual job that she goes and does every single day, full time, and and I think that's something that we as northern women really identify with you can pick, you know the world's greatest business leaders and we've had some incredible people to look up to and you know long may it continue.
Speaker 1:But you know, day to day it's been round and I think if I asked nine out of ten people, I asked about who their role model is. It's their mum or their grandmother. It's always that matriarchal, northern power, woman kind of thing. It's always that. What was the biggest lesson that you think you learned from your, your mam?
Speaker 2:probably the resilience. She is the most resilient person that I know never a crackle show, and there's elements of that. You know where you think we must be better at talking about the things that we experience. But as kids I know there were times when we had absolutely now, in her words, we're on the bones of our arses, but we just got by. But that's what you'd say and we never felt it, we never knew about it.
Speaker 2:And looking back now I know I can see the things that, the adjustments that were made and you know they're going to Nana's for tea and getting a bit of help with school, with school shoes and all that kind of stuff, and I can see the signs, but we never felt it and there is something about that unbelievable resilience in the face of some really difficult times that I think I've carried into my work in life and inherited an element of it. There is also a work ethic that she embodies. And my nana you know you mentioned people it's either the man or the nana. My nana was the same in me. Nana had five kids, two step kids, a full-time job, a disabled husband. Honestly, the woman was an absolute force and she was five foot nothing.
Speaker 2:If that actually yeah, yeah exactly, but the sort of true northern power woman and that resilience I think is built into us and it gets us a long way that great and resilient and you talk very much around.
Speaker 1:We've talked about opportunity a lot already today and you know, I always think every time I read or I see you or I hear you, it's you talk about that. That mission, that manifesto was about creating the northeast as the home of opportunity. But again the dna and you cut you open as a stick of rock Newcastle Rock, of course, or North East Rock right, yeah yeah, but it's right, three great cities in this country. Yeah, but it's right in there, isn't it? It's. You know, it's not just words, it's deeds, not words.
Speaker 2:for you, it's a complete belief system and it's. You know, it's not a political statement. It is the message, and it is the message and it's the thing that I want people to know us for. But it's also the driving thing that is making our decisions the way that we're making them. It's about every kid, regardless of their background, having access to the best possible opportunities and not having to leave this great place to get them.
Speaker 2:If you want to leave, that's totally fine. You know, we want you to take your pride and your skills and all of your northeast brilliance and show the world how incredible we are. That is amazing, but you should be able to stay. You should be able to do it here, and we have the tools available to us to make the right decisions so that you can do that, because I do believe it. I think there is nothing that should hold this place back. It is incredible. You said it yourself. You're having a great time in the north east, which I'm delighted about, but we've got everything. We've got the most incredible landscape, coastline, countryside, three amazing cities, we've got thriving industries, we've got amazing people, and there's nothing that should hold us back. And I'm about to. I want to make damn sure that it isn't how bad and and we talked just before we.
Speaker 1:We recorded, didn't we about? You know we're, we're not talked a lot of time, have we? Six months barely since you've been in decision you know I'm looking like. Oh my gosh, this has been amazing 17 million pounds for the, the rural coast the work that you're doing around child poverty and opportunities, again, the work around violence against women and girls. It's just, it's endless. What are you most proud of so far? And it is so far.
Speaker 2:I am proud of the pace with which we're going. We have got no choice, you know. So I will talk always with eternal optimism about the opportunity of this place, but we've got our challenges. We do have the highest levels of child poverty anywhere in the country. The North-South divide is still very real, the divides actually in the region are still very real and we've got to work to bust those, to fix them, to solve those problems, and so I'm really pleased that we're moving at pace, making the decisions that we said we were going to make, starting the process of bringing the buses back under public control.
Speaker 2:I've launched a child poverty has been announced um for for us to tackle that um, that gap between work and health, to support people with the barriers that they face into work because of their health, and that's a. You know that's devolved from the department of work and pensions and you know we continue to invest in our major growth sectors £140 million of investment into start-ups and scale-ups in the region so that we can really supercharge those industries that mean a lot to us. In green energy, in advanced manufacturing. We are bursting with talent and opportunity, and so now it's a case of drawing it out. So I don't think there's any one thing that I'm proudest of. The overarching aim is to give everyone opportunity to solve that child poverty, to close those gaps. But I'm really pleased with the you know, the fast paced start that we're making and I think the team, who have been absolutely brilliant, that the political team, who've been very supportive, are getting that. This is the pace for the foreseeable future, if not forever. We keep going. Let's get on the train, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, get on it yeah get on with it.
Speaker 2:We've got a job to do, let's do it. I don't have time to waste, and the people of the region deserve that level of focus.
Speaker 1:And, whether we like it or not, region deserve that, that level of focus, and, whether we like it a lot, there is a gender imbalance in politics. Yes, um, and it took Catherine to keep cajoling you, yeah, to kind of lean in, uh and go, come on, I'm gonna crack on and do what. What experience have you had? Have you felt that experience as a female politician?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean yes we, we all have this there's I mean, I'll talk about the, the experience of doing it in a minute but that imbalance. We are making great inroads. We really are. 50 of labour mps are women, but parliament still is not representative. We see it reflected in councils across the country. As mayors, there are only three women who are mayors, although there were three before myself and claire ward were elected. There was just one in tracy braben, who absolutely blazed the trail there.
Speaker 2:We've got to sort it and part of that is that conversation. It's the, it's the ask her to stand, because the way that men and women approach the world is often different and women do want to know that they can do a job and so, having somebody say you are brilliant, you can do this, I never shy away from it because I think it's really important. However, I also do it with the, the knowledge that I have to be honest about what the experience is like, and it can be really tough and you do experience misogyny and you do see online harassment. You do sometimes see that move into real life and we have to be really clear that it's completely not acceptable, that we will call it out at all costs. We'll call the men in to get them to help us solve that problem.
Speaker 2:But we've got to be really clear that it's not welcoming our political rhetoric, and I think we've seen some examples recently of politics that divides people, and that's not what it's about. It's about bringing people together to make real change. We shouldn't be in the weeds of the culture wars, beating each other up about who we are. We should be out there celebrating our diversity, out there, celebrating the opportunities that we've got, and unfortunately, too often what that leads to is a real onslaught of abuse and a negativity that women definitely experience more acutely than men, although I think it's really clear that it's it's all politicians or public figures, and it's now a reality of what we do.
Speaker 1:And if you were to speak across the road today? We know there's 1,000 young girls over at St James's Park what would you say to them about those curious and intrigued and passionate and mini campaigners? What would you you could give them one word about this as well why they should stand or use their voice for good.
Speaker 2:I think there's a couple of things there's never. Just one thing is there, because it's the obvious thing is to say you absolutely can do it, regardless of your background, regardless of all of your reservations. You absolutely can. If you want to do it, you can. But also look to us and make us do the things that you need us to do so that you can do it. I always say to young people whole people like me to account ask us, us, the questions, don't be frightened to do that, because that is what we're for. We represent you even just as much as we represent the next person, and I think that that is crucial. Use your voice and make sure we damn well hear it.
Speaker 1:And one thing I saw back in the in the autumn is you got we talked about the mergang and you got the mergang to run the Great North Rumble. Oh my gosh, yes, the northern talked about the mergang, um, and you've got the mergang to run the great north run oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yes, the northern. So the northern mergang.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the northern mergang but there seems to be that real collaboration and a bit of mischief, quite frankly, but there seems to be a real want to work together for the greater good, absolutely. And I get it that certain times, you know andy's gonna fight over here or Tracey's going to go there, like, but that just seems like that's the way politics should be, shouldn't it that, yeah, that's for the greater good yeah, absolutely, and it's it's a bit of that it's for the greater good.
Speaker 2:It's about disrupting and changing the system and making the system work for people that we represent. So we believe fundamentally, as mayors, that more decisions should be made closer to where people live, that the people in our regions should know that things are done differently because they're in the North East or because they're in Greater Manchester or because they're in West Yorkshire, because it's different there than it is in Westminster, or it's different there than it is in each of those component places. And so we're working with now, a government who gets this to change that system and to say what more can we devolve, what more decisions can we hand to the people of our region? And and have made closer so that we can solve our own problems. And sometimes that might look like mischief, but unapologetically so, and we know that we are stronger together. And so only this afternoon we will meet as a group of mayors together to talk about exactly that agenda, and that is really crucial to what we do.
Speaker 2:Hunting is a pack, and that then transcends not just the politics but the ability to form our identities, and so the Great North, I think, was really important to us as a set of northern mayors. It's a very symbolic brand. It's very symbolic as an identity for us as a region and then again, as mayors, we have power in numbers when it comes to doing things like attracting investment and having those more global conversations. So, yeah, that that grouping together is absolutely crucial to us and I'm I'm lucky to work with such a dynamic group of people because they are they're brilliant so your husband's serving in the RAF?
Speaker 1:yes, now, I'm not a big fan of like work-life balance and all that because it's clearly impossible. But how do you? How?
Speaker 2:do you get that harmony? Oh gosh, it's, it's really hard, it's really hard, and we both have careers that create a unique set of circumstances around lifestyle where at times your time isn't your own and you just have to go with it and we just go with it. And I think it's about supporting each other. Wherever I can, we'll go to the events that we're invited to as military spouses and support him wherever possible, and he's been absolutely brilliant at coming with me. But one thing that I try really hard not to take for granted is he can't do politics. You know he's military, he can't do politics. You know he's military, can't do politics. That is so good for us. So it's so good for us because it really does stop the constant creep of that into our everyday lives.
Speaker 2:And you know, he, he by trades kind of controls uh, by trade controls fast jets. But now he, he runs the the air security part of the air security for the uk and sometimes when we're having real trivial um battles day to day in in our work, I sort of go home and talk to him and I think, yeah, what you're doing is keeping us all safe and think everything in perspective. So we, we try our best and it can be difficult to carve out the space, but just, but we do support each other and he has been unbelievably supportive despite all of the um, I suppose, pressures that come with being active military and having a lot of responsibility. And then once a year and it does happen once a year, and it's remembrance sunday we go to work together and that's the one day of the year that our kind of your worlds and careers collide and you mentioned, or I read, that if you weren't in politics, you would have loved to have hosted a radio show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who would be your dream line up on your, your? Whether it be, I don't know. What would it be? Would it be the politics show? Would it be? Would it be women's hour late. What would it be? Who?
Speaker 2:would be on it. Do you know? I think I probably answered that question. Obviously you would be thank you and I probably answered that question. Answered that question on a little bit on the spot, because podcasts where it's at now isn't it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we are power podcasts. Come on honestly.
Speaker 2:I think we've all got. The other day everybody's got a book in them. I'm not sure if I do, but I probably have a podcast in me.
Speaker 1:I think it'd be a box set as well. It'd have to be a series, wouldn't it, you know?
Speaker 2:podcast? I think there's. I do think that bringing out northern women's voices is really important, and at every level, because you, you have, you have things where you you see people filed under influential or role model, as we've just discussed. Anybody can can be influential and be a role model and there are heroes in their day-to-day lives that we really should be telling their stories. So I think there's something about that and hopefully, you know, probably not via the medium of a radio show or a podcast, but hopefully through the work that I do we'll be able to highlight those experiences that people have every day in our region and talk about how they are the key to making this place even better than it already is One of the things I see often on social media.
Speaker 1:is you with the dogs? Errol and Iris now, this is a tough one. Where's your favourite place to walk them? It's like I mean, that's hard. Where's your favorite place in the northeast?
Speaker 2:so I'm gonna go with generic beach, so political it's a little bit political it's not honestly, it's not political, because we are unbelievably spoiled for choice.
Speaker 2:If you go from the scottish border all the way down our coast into the southern bits of Durham, the beaches, the coastline is just unbelievable. And there are places in this region where, if I sent you a photograph and said, do you know, I'm in the Maldives, you believe me, you would believe me. It is beautiful. We are so, so lucky and I've got two dogs, a Labrador and a Spaniel. Both of them love water, both of them just love beach. Dogs that, a labrador and a spaniel, both of them love water, both of them just love beach. And I always say that, um, you know, if they were to to do a q a, it'd be name arrow, iris, religion, ball home beach. And honestly, they're just they're. They take you out of your own head and they get you out into the countryside and they make you go out in the worst of all weathers, because they absolutely need it and it's really good for you and for you, isn't it?
Speaker 1:it's that whole mindful space. Oh god, where's the ball, where's the dog? Where's the blanket to wipe them before they get in the car?
Speaker 2:exactly, you know it's funny the day after I won my police and crime commissioner role, first of all in a by-election and by-elections are brutal. They are really short, they are really controlled you work every hour that the world sends you and you just go for it for five weeks. And the day after I won that by-election or it might have been this it was either the Saturday or the Sunday, because in fact the day after I did I did Northern Pride, so it'll have been the Sunday I went for a walk with my dog. I it would have been the Sunday. I went for a walk with my dog and he had Errol at the time.
Speaker 2:I went for a walk with my dog on the beach on my own, for exactly that reason. I just needed the headspace and I bumped into Chionwura, who is our Newcastle Central MP, and I said oh my gosh, what are you doing here? And she said you know I'm not surprised to find you here, she said, because this is exactly the thing I did the day after I won my election. So there's something so restorative about getting out there and enjoying all that we've got and you know that outstanding beauty that we've got in the region better than the.
Speaker 2:Maldives, the northeast better than the Maldives fact.
Speaker 1:Oh, kim, thank you so much for joining me today. This is just episode one. This is our part of our box. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you all for joining us. We love having these conversations talking to the most amazing role models in and from the north of england, celebrating sparkling, sprinkling some of that magic dust. Thank so much. Please join us on all our channels. No-transcript.
