How do you start the day? Sunday is definitely my latest start to the week; so I’d hope to be in bed until about 8.30am. My wife is a bright spark first thing; I’m a slow burner, especially after Parliament. Every other Sunday I’ll probably rise first and nip out to get us both a posh coffee and the Sunday papers.
How does Sunday morning unfold? One of my sons plays football for a Sunday league team in Tottenham, and my daughter and I like to go along and support him. I’m one of the more active dads on the touchline. I like to video parts of his play and dissect it together later on.
Do you watch your beloved Tottenham Hotspur? I do. Six or seven Sundays a season I’ll take the boys to Spurs and we’ll do some serious shouting. Football is a great way for me to catch up with my sons, and to let off some steam from my professional life. Supporting Spurs is a bit like being in the Labour Party. It’s a labour of love, believe me.
Are Sundays work-free? Not always. Once a month I’ll do an hour’s campaigning locally, knocking on constituents’ doors, dropping leaflets through letter-boxes, catching up with how people are feeling.
Time for culture? I love cinema, so if I’m not watching football I’ll take my daughter, who is five, to see a film. She’s just discovered Frozen – I now know all the words off by heart and have been known to break into Let It Go. Once the kids are in bed I love to settle down to a good Sunday night drama.
Sunday roast or a sandwich on the hoof? We love a Sunday roast, but we don’t have ours until about 6-ish. During the day I might see a really nice rack of lamb and then come back home with it. Sometimes for a real treat with the kids, we go out and get really good traditional fish and chips, mushy peas and curry sauce.
Is politics discussed at the dinner table? There’s always lively debate, but not really about politics. We tend to reflect on the week ahead, things that happen in families: births, deaths, christenings, weddings. We often use Sunday dinner as an anchor for reflection, but usually against the backdrop of the boys on the Xbox.
Do you have much time to relax? Not much. It’s a very noisy house but once a month the whole family like to go to church but because of Brexit last year we’ve been going to church a bit less because it’s taken up so much of my time.
A tipple before bedtime? We’ll usually have cracked open a bottle of wine with our early evening roast, but just the one. A heavy head on a Monday morning is not the best way to start. We’ll finish off the night going through our diaries for the week – my wife’s an artist – so we can coordinate our schedules. Otherwise chaos ensues.
Tribes: How Our Need to Belong Can Make or Break The Good Society by David Lammy (Constable, £20) is available from guardianbookshop.com
