Giving politics a celebrity boost

By Jackie Storer
Political reporter, BBC News

There are not many places where you will find Kylie Minogue hanging out with Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and model Lily Cole.

Ms Sarpong has an MBE for services to broadcasting and charity work

But 31-year-old June Sarpong, best known as the face of Channel 4's youth programme T4, reckons there is a gap in the market for fashionable young women who like celebrities and gossip - but also want to keep on top of current affairs.

She has launched a website - Politics and the City - to cover, politics, news, fashion, beauty, gossip and music.

She says it will include blogs written by Tamara Mellon, Natasha Bedingfield, Kathy Lette, Baroness Amos and Kelly Hoppen.

"I think women in this country feel disenfranchised, politically," she told The Independent. "It's such a boys' club.

"It makes no sense that it's such a male-dominated area when it's something that affects us all. If it's only men, or mostly men, involved in the political process, that's no good."

JUNE SARPONG Aged: 31 Born: Leytonstone, east London to Ghanaian parents Worked for: Channel 4's T4; BBC Three's Strictly Dance Fever; ITV2's Wags' Boutique and Kiss FM Charity work: The Prince's Trust, Kids Company and Make Poverty History Interviewed: Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Gordon Brown

She says she wants her site, which has the backing of two private investors, to keep women informed.

"So many of my girlfriends, who are smart, successful women, don't have a clue about politics - and it's not because they don't want to," she says.

"Often they don't feel confident speaking up because they don't feel knowledgeable enough. Newspapers assume an awful lot of knowledge.

While she has interviewed world leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Gordon Brown - there is still one man who eludes her... David Cameron.

"I'd love to interview him. I've met him. I think he's got that Blair factor, in terms of making you feel very important," she said.

"I like what he's doing on family and in making the Conservative Party more fashionable. But you have to wait and see. You don't know what people are really like until they're in power."

Advertisement

June Sarpong talks to The Daily Politics about her effort to provide coverage of politics for young metropolitan women. Ken Livingstone

But the former girlfriend of Labour minister David Lammy believes politicians should not be allowed to be in power forever.

"I like the American system of eight years maximum for a president - I think that's enough for anyone."