Baroness Hollis on her new-found fame after helping to halt George Osborne’s tax credit cuts

SHE’S the quietly-spoken peer who stopped George Osborne in his tracks.

However, Baroness Hollis says she still isn’t completely aware of her new-found fame.

In the House of Lords last week, peers backed her call for those due to be affected by tax credit cuts to be spared for at least three years.

The internet was quickly buzzing with praise for the Labour peer, an unlikely nemesis for the Chancellor.

One tweeter wrote she was “officially invited around for tea and toast at every home in Britain”, while another praised her for using her power to “do good for the masses”.

But sitting in her Westminster office, the Baroness admits much of this has passed her by.

“I don’t do Twitter at all,” she laughs. “I’m ancient when it comes to IT I can just about manage a mobile phone.”

Just as well, then, that she can use email.

“I must have had two or three hundred emails since and they would make you weep people telling me they were terrified but a huge burden has been taken away from them.

“I pray and hope the House of Commons gives them enough protection so they are not plunged back into despair.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cuXKY-CNpV0

She may not be watching all the ripples, but this canny politician was well aware of the rock she was throwing into Government waters.

“I hoped that if I could persuade the Lords to agree, it would give a delay or pause in the system, otherwise those cuts would have been law that night.”

She admits it was a surprise, even for the famously well- behaved Lords, for her words to be heard in complete silence.

“They didn’t challenge me, they didn’t correct me at any stage”, she explains.

“They accepted, as far as I could tell, that everything I said was right and decent.”

Part of the reason was the meticulous preparation of this historian-turned-politician.

“I carried out a lot of research”, she says. “I wanted to be very sure I didn’t inadvertently mislead the House on some of the statistics I was giving.

“I think I had something like a yard-high pile of papers from people like the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the House of Lords Library, the National Audit Office and so on.”

She says she needed two large supermarket carrier bags just to transport them home.

“Thank goodness for Tesco and Sainsbury’s,” she laughs.

The Baroness in the Lords (AFP / Getty)

Those who have followed her time at Westminster are not surprised that the Baroness has managed to give the Government of the day pause for thought.

In the early ’90s, she helped persuade the Conservative government that local authorities should license mini cab drivers.

It’s something she remains proud of being instrumental in.

“At the time only the car had to be licensed, so at rural railway stations anyone could turn up in a car.

“There was no regulation.

“Something like 30% of drivers had criminal convictions.”

Another campaign many will be thankful for was her work on the sharing of pension rights on divorce in 1995.

“I try to fight those issues where I not only think it’s the right and decent thing to do, but politically other people who might not agree with me normally would think it was right.”