Anneliese Dodds will make history on Monday as the first woman Shadow Chancellor to address a party conference.
But the coronavirus pandemic means her landmark speech will take place online rather than in front of thousands of Labour members packed into an auditorium.
Even so, it is a moment her late father Keith, a former accountant whose daughter inherited his love of numbers, would have been proud to witness.
Sadly, he died in 2018 aged 74.
But, speaking exclusively to the Mirror over Zoom, Ms Dodds said her dad's commitments to justice and fairness were driving forces behind her politics – and would fuel a crackdown on tax dodgers and fraudsters if she became Chancellor.
She said: “One thing he genuinely was passionate about was countering fraud.
“There were some instances when I saw growing up, even in our local community, where money was misused, unfortunately.
“I remember him being really upset about that.
“There was a case in our local church where that happened, and the impact that has on people's trust is really significant.”
Ms Dodds would use her father's example to target tax avoiders and evaders if she led the Treasury.
“It's about just doing the right thing,” she said.
“When you allow that kind of bad practice, it's really bad for everyone who is doing the right thing, for all those businesses who are following the rules – as the vast majority do.
“It's something I am really strongly committed to, that financial probity.
“What I feel keenly is that so many people are working really hard, they're trying to get on, they're doing all the right things – but they are still struggling.
“You can compare their situation to those in other circumstances who are having it a lot easier.
“That's not to denigrate people in those situations, it's to say we have got to pull everyone up, we've got to make sure everyone can get on.”
Keith was no tribal Labour voter, having “supported a variety of political parties” over the years – though not the Scottish nationalists.
Softly-spoken Ms Dodds, 42, will refer to his accountancy firm, which had offices in Montrose and Stonehaven, as she vows to “restore trust with business”.
She will say: “I understand what a critical role business plays in creating jobs and supporting livelihoods across the country.
“I’ve talked to so many business owners who can feel a lifetime of hard work slipping through their fingers.
“My father was a small businessman; an accountant who worked a six-day week for decades.
“His staff were more like friends than employees.
“I know how awful he would feel if he were in the shoes of so many business owners right now, because there are other cliff edges looming.”
She told the Mirror: “Sometimes when we talk about business we forget that it's about people.
“My dad, he was a small businessman, he worked six days a week for a very long time and we knew all the people that he worked with – they were close friends of his.
“The pressures a lot of business people are under now, they feel it very close to their heart.
“They are having to weigh up, 'Can we keep certain employees on? Are we even going to be able to keep trading?'
“Possibly they have put their heart and soul into that business and taking those decisions is really heartbreaking for a lot of people.”
Watching her dad graft gave her an insight into the struggle of small business owners across the land, she said.
“For a lot of people, being involved in a small business is not about the money – of course, you've got to earn enough to live – but it is about having that really good quality whatever it is, whether it's a cafe or a butcher's or an accountant's,” she said.
“People want that to be as good as it can be, it's part of the local economy, the high street, a local community.
“I think sometimes that is a world away from some of the views of business that we get, particularly from the current Conservative Government.”
Ms Dodds, who wants “a more progressive tax system” urged the Tories not to hike taxes as the country battles the coronavirus recession.
“The focus of the Government right now has got to be on protecting jobs,” she insisted.
“We can have those discussions about tax in the abstract, but if the size of the tax base is going down, if you've got fewer people in work, you've got people spending less, if you've got fewer businesses in operation, then you can talk all you like about the tax system – but that tax base is going to be smaller.”
She added: “When we have got out of those circumstances then let's have that national discussion about tax.”
If Labour wins the next election, Ms Dodds would become Britain's first female Chancellor, which would be “a huge honour, a very big responsibility as well”, she said.
She would approach the job through the “neighbour test” she has used since she was first elected to the European Parliament in 2014.
“The thing that always matters to me, ever since I first became an elected politician, is my neighbour test,” she revealed.
“It's to think, 'With what I am doing now, would she agree with this? Would she think it was the right thing?'
“That's what drives me.”
If she became Chancellor and lived in No11 Downing Street, her neighbour would of course be Keir Starmer, so it is to be hoped the answer would be: “Yes.”
No woman has ever run the Treasury, even though in 1949, 30 years before she became Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher famously suggested women would be better at running the public finances because they oversaw household budgets.
“The Government should do what any good housewife would do if money was short – look at their accounts and see what was wrong,” the future Tory leader told her adoption meeting as a Conservative candidate for Dartford.
Does Ms Dodds agree?
“I certainly think we need to look at accounts and see what's wrong – and right now the current Government has done very little to consider the long-term problems facing our economy,” she said.
“Unfortunately Margaret Thatcher drew the wrong conclusions from that analysis in many cases.”
But does Ms Dodds control the budget in her household?
“Don't go there!”
