The former MP is proving that influence in a political party does not always lie in parliament
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Evan Harris is attracting attention as he shapes the Liberal Democrat agenda from outside parliament. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
Tony Benn once said he left parliament to pursue a career in politics.
Evan Harris, the bright-eyed former MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, is becoming living proof that a former MP can indeed be as influential outside parliament as inside.
He unexpectedly lost his seat at the last election, mislaying a notional 5,500 majority to Nicola Blackwood, but instead of disappearing into medical practice or paid lobbying, he has become an even bigger figure on the political landscape.
Look at the health rebellion over the NHS, the demand for a public inquiry into phone hacking and the drive to stop Nadine Dorries abortion reforms, and you can see the little hidden hand of Harris. He tweets by the second, and does not regard No as a recognisable answer. Like most great campaigners, he is not gripped by self-doubt.
For some Tories, he is now public enemy number one, billed as Doctor Death for his views on abortion.
Indeed, such is his ubiquity that even some Liberal Democrats have grown jealous of the man, pointing out that if he was quite such a brilliant campaigner, the fierce secularist would have seen off the Christian Blackwood (mundane boundary changes played a part).
In his defence, Harris has been engaging with issues on which he has a long track record. He pursued them all as an MP. But freed from the day to day pressures of an MP, he has used his first hand knowledge of parliament, status within the Liberal Democrats as a policy vice chairman and the leverage provided by the Lib Dem presence in the coalition to great effect. He is also a beneficiary of the fact that the Liberal Democrats have a policy-making and recognisably democratic conference.
The release from the daily constituency grind has also come at a time when a relatively new organisation inside the Liberal Democrats - the Social Liberal Forum - has grown in influence, putting down some of the key amendments and motions for the spring conference, as well as the one coming up in a fortnight in Birmingham.
At the spring conference the SLF organised the rebellion that in turn led to the massive pause in the NHS bill. Cabinet members now regard it their duty to attend SLF's own conference to take the political pulse. They are hosting six fringe meetings at conference, and a number of model amendments ranging from green investment banking to a response to the riots. Even a union leader has been asked to speak at one of their fringes.
On the NHS bill, the Liberal Democrat leadership came to the view that the party should pocket its winnings after the changes demanded by the party were incorporated. In the report stage on the bill this week, Clegg told his party to accept the reform package, but some 16 Liberal Democrats rebelled, including party president Tim Farron. Harris said that showed the rebellion has not fizzled out.
Now Harris and his allies, including Baroness Williams and Charles West, have decided to keep the flames of rebellion alight at conference. Offered a question-and-answer session at the conference, the SLF has decided to demand more, taking the risk of putting down an emergency motion saying further changes to the bill are still required to keep it in line with the coalition agreement.
So far the conference committee has rejected the motion, and Harris will make a formal appeal at a conference arrangements meeting on Saturday, and if that fails as is likely, the SLF can try to persuade delegates in a pre-conference ballot to vote for the health motion as an emergency motion. A two-thirds majority is required. It will be a key test of the conference's mood, and its loyalty to Clegg. If it passes, Harris claims it will provide ammunition to Liberal Democrat peers to be rebel when the bill reaches the Lords. Issues like ministerial oversight, a cap on private health care and democratic oversight still disturb the rebels.
The danger is that SLF over reaches itself, and finds it has expended its own ammunition best used elsewhere at conference.