The Liberal Democrat Party has become the latest part of the Taylor Swift bandwagon it seems.
With the party already backing calls for the American singer to be given an award in the form of the ‘Freedom of the City’ of London, one of its new MPs is also now tabling a Commons motion praising Swift.
The Early Day Motion (EDM), drawn up by Tom Gordon, the Lib Dem MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, champions “the economic impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour on the UK economy”.
The motion points to the fact that Taylor Swift’s appearances across the UK this year could have been worth as much as £1 billion to the UK economy. Alongside her eight shows in London, the singer also performed in Liverpool, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
The text of the Commons motion, will be formally published when parliament returns from recess on September 2nd. Although an Early Day Motion has no formal power, once tabled, we can expect it to be signed by a large number of MPs.
Tom Gordon, the Lib Dem sponsor of the EDM was newly elected to Westminster in July this year. The thirty four year old is something of an avid Taylor Swift fans it seems.
Describing himself as “the Swiftie MP”, he has already pictured himself at one of Taylor Swift’s concerts this summer, and had planned to travel to Austria to attend the later cancelled, Swift concert, in Vienna.
The Harrogate MP has recently begun his own ‘Summer tour’ albeit as per his Twitter feed, the venues are a little more modest, including the Harrogate Cenotaph, Jennyfields Co-op, and the Bilton Community Centre.
Tom Gordon is not the only Liberal Democrat to have been bowled over by Taylor Swift.
The Lib Dems’ Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney MP, has previously suggested that the singer’s career has been one of ‘endless philanthropy’. Olney has further congratulated the singer on filling a space left by the Conservatives in the UK economy.
Amongst her other MP fans, Taylor Swift can count on the support of John Whitby, the newly elected Labour MP for Derbyshire. Mr Whitby, who once had a record deal with EMI as the leader singer of the 1980s band, Beyond, describes himself on his website as a ‘proud Swiftie’.