In Conversation with the Lady Mayor, Dame Sue Langley

Gaby Roslin: Dame Sue, Lady Mayor, this is huge, so obviously the first question has to be, how the heck are you feeling about it all?  

Dame Susan: It feels really strange, because I never set out to be Lady Mayor. I used to watch The Lord Mayor’s parade on my grandad’s shoulders. Can you imagine telling a little kid that one day they were going to be in that parade, let alone telling them they were going to be in the golden State Coach? So, it really is an absolute honour, though it feels a bit surreal.

I love the fact that this has come about for you. So, let’s start at the very beginning. When you were on your grandfather’s shoulders, what was life like in the East End of London?

I had a really happy and,  I would say, privileged childhood. Some people use the word “underprivileged” about the East End. We didn’t have a lot of money, but my parents were hugely supportive of me. I don’t want it to sound like my childhood was hard, it was absolutely great.

No, it makes you real and people want to know you.  

Well, I remember my gran’s house especially. It still had the outside tin bath and the mangle to wash the clothes and one of those irons…  

Did you ever use it yourself?

No, far too dangerous, I’d have had flat fingers going anywhere near it! As my husband Gary says, I’ve got the grace of a baby elephant. I had a great childhood and then we moved out to Essex, where I went to school and was vaguely bright.

Why “vaguely” bright? Look at what you’ve accomplished with  your career – and now you’re The Lady Mayor.

OK, I did fairly well and was encouraged to do A-levels. The school didn’t have a sixth form and my parents didn’t think, “Perhaps you should go to somewhere with a sixth form”, so teachers gave up their spare time to teach me in a cleared-out chemistry cupboard. It was all very Harry Potter! They didn’t have a French teacher, so I taught myself out of a book. I didn’t get very good A-levels, but the school said, “You should go to university”. So I went to Southampton University and got a geography degree. Afterwards, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so decided to take myself off travelling and went to work in Cardiff to earn enough money to pay for an airfare.

Doing what?

I counted traffic cones, because every cone on a motorway needed its own little slip. And then I’d count them back in again.

I’m very pleased that somebody did that! And you raised the money to go to Australia?

Yes, I spent time in Australia and did a lot of travelling on the way there and back. I met so many brilliant people where English wasn’t the shared language, but you find a way to get on. It teaches you tolerance and patience and it gave me that resilience. It also taught me how to be very frugal. When I came back, I saw an advert in The Sunday Times for a job for Thomson tour operators’ graduate trainee scheme and applied for it. That’s the only job I’ve ever applied for. Every other one has found me.

Not many people can say that. From then on in, people wanted you to take the next step?

Yes, because I like people and I’m naturally curious, I’ve gone through life saying, “What do you do? That sounds interesting”, or “How do you do that?” At Thomson tour operators, the external auditor said I should be in consulting. And I said, “Really?”. And one of the clients said I should be in insurance, and I said, “Really?”. And then I sat next to the Speaker of the House of Lords at dinner and he said, “You should be in government”. And I said, “Really?”. And it just went on from there.

Do you realise how unusual that is? I hope it makes you feel really proud of yourself.

At any one time I’ve had up to 17 mentorees and I always repeat my dad’s words: “Anything is possible. How hard can it be?” I feel privileged because I was given the confidence – rather than the arrogance, I hope – to think, “That sounds fun, I’ll try that!” 

There’s nothing arrogant about saying, “That sounds fun, I’m going to give it a go.”

I always say to my mentorees that opportunities come through networking. If you’re naturally curious, people are generally helpful. If somebody asks me a question about how to do something, of course I’m going to help.

The list of things you’ve done is remarkable, but can you pick the three jobs which have made something click in you or where you’ve learned something?

First I’d say my time at Macmillan, which is a brilliant charity. The juxtaposition of the charity world and the private sector world is so interesting. It makes me ask, “What do we value in life? How do we measure it?” Caring and empathy take you a long way.  Then I’d highlight my time at the Old Bailey as Sheriff, because you see kids come in accused of knife crime and murder. They’ve got caught up in gangs because they have nothing else and don’t have anyone there to tell them that anything is possible. So the gang becomes their family and there’s no way out.

You see these kids jailed for 30 or 40 years – life. That’s absolutely heart-breaking, and it made me determined to think about what I could do to make a difference. Even changing one person’s life at a time is good, if you can do that. The last thing is all the mentoring that I do. I’ve had a brilliant career and it’s been a huge privilege to have done the jobs I’ve had, and now I’m doing this amazing job as Lady Mayor. If I had to throw everything away, I would keep all the letters from mentorees saying, “You’ve changed my life”, “You’ve given me a different outlet”, “I’ve now managed to do this or that”. Those are what I’ll keep in my drawer upstairs.

I can tell those mean the world to you. Can we talk about your role as The Lady Mayor now? You’re the third female holder of the office, but for the first time you’re called The Lady Mayor rather than The Lord Mayor – why did you insist on that?

We’ve had a Lady Usher of the Black Rod and we’ve got a Lady Chief Justice. I think it’s time the City had a Lady Mayor. 

So what does the role entail for you personally?

People see The Lord Mayor as a ceremonial figure – The Lord Mayor’s Show, the golden State Coach and so on – but there is so much more to it. The role means you are an ambassador for financial and professional services. You spend a hundred days overseas, so you’re promoting the UK in terms of greater investment alongside government, which is more important than ever now. There’s a charitable element to it as well, but the charitable events have been quite traditional and I’d like to shake them up a little. So we’re going to do some different things, like a motorbike run out from Mansion House and some other ideas. Then there are some of the social impact elements and for me, because of my background, it’s about opportunity. It doesn’t matter  where you come from or what you want to do, you can do anything here and there are some fantastic careers. I’ve come from the East End to Lady Mayor and other people can do it too. So how can I give people self-belief or the ambition? Someone gave me a good phrase: “How can I unsquare the Square Mile?”

I love that. So you have a year to do that?

I’m a custodian, who is sitting in the role of Lady Mayor for a year and then I’ll hand it on to someone else. I want to make sure people recognise the role as a convener, a champion of the City of London, and then hand that role on safely. As the business ambassador for the City of London financial and professional services, it’s about helping to create more jobs and more opportunities for people, to allow them to have a good career, to allow the economy to grow, to allow us to be able to invest in things that support the UK.  You have to do that through an emotional connection and people have to want to do it. So it’s reminding people that we should work together as a team. How are we going to create that kind of feeling? I haven’t cracked how to do it yet, Gaby!

I don’t think there’s any doubt that you will crack it. So how do you feel about the parade today? 

It’s strange to be in it, rather than watching it. There were many years, after my grandfather passed away, when I didn’t watch the Show, and now I’m seeing it from the other side.

He’d have been so proud of you. You’re going to do a wonderful job. Let’s get onto your plans for the year. In the past Lord Mayors have had favourite charities they support?

I’m going to take a slightly different approach. I’m going to be concentrating instead on impact projects aligned around opportunity, which have a real impact on the lives of people in the City, whether they live or work here. So I’ll be picking projects that, for example, allow more kids to come into London or help develop confidence and leadership skills. There are so many great charities now that play in the same space, and we have an opportunity to get them together and see how they become more than the sum of their parts.

That’s brilliant.

It’s also important that fundraising events are varied and inclusive. There’s a place for formal dinners, but there’s also a place for a motorbike run out, a train trip or a music concert with no classical music. We came up with this phrase “cultural collision” – put some rap and modern dance in there. It’s not what people expect in the City.

Fabulous! So let’s talk about business.  

Yes, a hundred days overseas…

Where you say, “Hey, come to the City of London!”

Not just that, but taking a delegation overseas to meet potential partners and with a list of investment opportunities. The role allows you the ability to have conversations that other people wouldn’t have.  Then in the UK, it comes back to this convening power. I’d like Mansion House to be seen almost as the embassy for financial and professional services. It’s where you come to have conversations about the things we need to fix and hopefully find ways to resolve them.  This also ties in with building the brand of the Mayoralty. It needs consistency.

Business is important to you because you’ve been incredibly successful in business for many years. I know you want it to be accessible for everybody no matter where you come from, or your colour, sexuality or political beliefs.

One thing that I do feel really strongly about is that life’s not always fair, but you’ve got to try and make it as fair as possible and make sure people have the same opportunity. The City of London is, in fact, really good for that, and people shouldn’t think they can’t come into it, because it’s not for them or they don’t have the right background. There’s a lot of preconceptions around the City that are wrong, that we need to do something about.

Tell me about the reality of the City then, if the preconceived ideas are wrong?

The City is very welcoming. You don’t have to come in with a set of specific skills, just a desire to learn. If you want to build your career, it’s very open to you. You don’t have to be pushy, but you do have to put yourself forward and be prepared to step into the gap.

That’s scary for a lot of people.

The Mayoralty’s key role, apart from being an ambassador, is to ensure that we have the right talent coming through and that we have the environment to make sure that this is somewhere people want to come and work. If we get that right, then it’s easier for businesses to grow.

So to people from abroad seeing you in your golden State Coach on this day, what can we offer their businesses here in the City?

This is a great place to work: the City is a hub that offers all of the services and expertise a company needs. We have a great talent pool and a great environment to live and work. I think sometimes in the UK, we’re not very good at saying what we’re good at, and we’re very good at saying what’s wrong. We can be quite negative, but we never talk about the positives. We need to be proud of what we offer in the UK and of the business environment that we have here. Can we be a bit more Team UK?

On a personal note, Mansion House is going to be “Mansion Home” to you. How’s that going to be?

Well, a little bigger than where I live now… The decor is a bit different, with a lot of vases I mustn’t bump into.

When everyone’s gone at night, are you going to throw your shoes off and run through the place? Please do.

I hadn’t thought of it until you said that, but now I’m going to! But seriously, it’s going to be a really short commute with my office in the building, which I’m looking forward to, given we’re going to be out every evening.

You’re not going to have much time to spend with your husband Gary, are you?

This is a partnership as Gary is the Mayoral Consort, so is as much a part of this as I am. I would not want to do this on my own. So, we will try and go home occasionally and decompress, but I think when I do go home, I will probably not be eating out. Probably fish fingers and baked beans.

And at the end of the day, will The Lady Mayor be watching telly? I have this picture of you putting the telly on with your feet up.

No, I’ve never watched a lot of telly. I’m a great reader. A cup of tea, a digestive and a book is my idea of bliss.

This time next year, when the next Lord Mayor comes in, what would you like him to say about your tenure?

That she made a difference!

Perfect place to end.