Sir Michael Fallon
I am most grateful to my hon. Friend. It seemed to me incredibly important to keep the confidence of the House, having won its support back in 2015 for airstrikes in Iraq and then for their extension to Syria. Of course, that we were able to keep that confidence was down in no small part to the precision of our pilots and their skill in difficult conditions in minimising civilian casualties.
My successor will inherit a thriving and prosperous constituency. My constituents enjoy a good quality of life, remarkably low unemployment, a wide choice of schooling, frequent rail connections to the capital and the protection of the green belt—over 90% of my constituency is green belt—but there is still work to be done, including on the regeneration of Swanley, one of the other towns in my constituency, especially through new investment and the promise of a fast link service from Maidstone and Otford through Swanley to the city of London.
We also need to ensure that boys in my constituency have access to grammar school places. Whether you like it or not, Kent offers an 11-plus system, but Sevenoaks was the only district in Kent that did not have any grammar school places. I was delighted that after a 15-year campaign we managed to establish a girls’ school annexe, which has been open now for a couple of years, but we still need to ensure provision for boys’ grammar school places alongside it. We also need to continue to preserve our green-belt protections in Sevenoaks. The Government’s unrealistic housing targets will put pressure on that green belt, though I know that my hon. Friends on the Front Bench are conscious of the need to balance the demand for new housing with our commitments to protect the green belt.
I hope that this election campaign will not ignore some of the longer-term challenges our country faces. We have spent an awful lot of time—perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly—debating the withdrawal agreement. In the end, that agreement only dealt with Ireland, our payments into the EU budget and the rights of EU citizens; we have not started yet on the major negotiation that really matters for business and jobs in my constituency, which is our future trading relationship, and I fear we have not yet started to explain to our electors some of the trade-offs that will inevitably be involved as we come to deal with the challenge to agriculture, financial services, the aerospace and automotive industries and our fisheries, and accommodating their legitimate right and desire to trade freely with the European continent with the views of our partners.
We will have to quickly put in place the security partnership that has long been promised in various documents the Government have issued—I fear we have spoken far too little about this—and make sure there is no cliff edge at the end of January or February in the policing and judicial arrangements that our constituents expect and in the way our agencies work with other agencies across the European continent to deal with terrorism and organised crime. We will also need to work with our former partners in the EU to continue to uphold the rules-based international order. We do not debate foreign affairs nearly enough in this House. When I first entered Parliament, in the ’80s, we had much more regular debates on international affairs.
We are dealing with a resurgent Russia that is in breach of many international conventions, whether on nuclear arms, chemical weapons or the protection of sovereignty under the Helsinki accords. We are dealing with a very ambitious China that is flouting the law of the sea convention, which it has signed, and continues to steal—there is no other word for it—the world’s intellectual property. And we are dealing with a mercantilist United States that is degrading the World Trade Organisation and slapping sanctions even on its friends in pursuit of a policy of “America first”. When it comes to holding the rules-based international system together, there really is a role for the leadership among the western nations, and particularly for our own nation here in the United Kingdom.
Let me end by thanking all those who have helped me so much over the last 31 years, particularly the staff in my office.
The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr Nick Hurd)
I am not able to contribute with a speech, but—with some licence from you, Madam Deputy Speaker—I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for enabling me to intervene and express my strong personal view that he was one of the most effective and competent Ministers with whom it was ever my pleasure to serve. I think that that view is widely held on this side of the House.
Perhaps, through my right hon. Friend, I can express my personal thanks to the people whom I need to thank, not least my parliamentary staff, Jamie, Rosie, Ann Taggart and, in particular, Jill Brown, who is a parliamentary institution of her own. She came into this place in 1974, with my dad, and continues to go the extra yard on behalf of constituents, and for that she will always have my gratitude. Again, I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for letting me intervene.
Sir Michael Fallon
I am very grateful too, for the opportunity to allow my right hon. Friend to put that on record. I am only sorry that he cannot do so more formally.
Let me finally echo the thanks expressed by others to the Clerks and the staff of the House, and, in particular, single out the staff of the Library. They are, perhaps, a dignified part of our constitution, but they are almost certainly one of the most effective parts, and we owe them a very great deal.
David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)
Thank you so much for calling me to speak, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Ealing North (Stephen Pound), who has entertained the House for many years; I enjoyed his speech very much. Today was the new Mr Speaker’s first appearance in the House and this will be my last appearance, but another date that we should recognise today is 5 November, when, in 1605, Guy Fawkes put 26 barrels of gunpowder in a shed up against the old House of Lords.
I have been very lucky to represent the Bosworth constituency for 32 years, covering Hinckley and Bosworth —over 100 square miles. It has changed dramatically. It was originally part of the Leicestershire coalfield—a mining constituency. Desford pit was running when I first went there. We had steelmaking at Desford—Desford Tubes—a great hosiery and knitwear industry, and shoes being made at Barwell.
Yesterday, when I was clearing out my office, I found my maiden speech from back in 1987. I wanted to make some kind of an impact. Colleagues who listened to the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey) will have heard her talk about how different it was then. We had no television in the Chamber; we aspired to get a couple of inches in The Times or perhaps be on Radio 4, but we had to say something of significance. I had a problem in my constituency about which I wanted to make a serious speech: the importation of cheap Chinese clothes, and more specifically, Chinese underwear. I had to attempt to dress this up in a way that would be eye-catching, but not too eye-catching, and the next day, one of the newspapers reported: new MP says, “Knickers to Cheap Chinkies…Lovely lassies are queueing up to support new MP David Tredinnick in his battle to give cheap Chinese panties the push”. This took some explaining in some quarters of my constituency.
Many colleagues have spoken of the importance of staff. I am pretty confident that I have the longest-serving staff in the House, and I want to thank them by name. Matthew Williams, who started work for me in February ’96, has worked for me for 23 years on the complementary and alternative medicine desk and has given great service. My parliamentary agent, Stuart Swann, has worked for me for 21 years and has taken me through all those general elections. Pippa Way has been a brilliant PA and is still working for me after six years. Her predecessor, Thurza Rowson, who was also brilliant, worked for me for 25 years. Jill Burge worked for me in support for 10 years. These are outstanding staff. I caution anybody coming into the House against having inexperienced staff—these are very experienced staff and they have helped me enormously.
I also thank my family. My partner, Carolyn, has been a terrific support, going around the constituency with me. We share most of the meetings and it is great to have triangulation when it comes to what people are saying—sometimes she tells me things that I was not expecting. I thank Rebecca, my former wife, who supported me while child-rearing and did a fantastic job, and my wonderful children, Sophie and Thomas, who still have not forgiven me for pushing them around in a supermarket trolley wearing t-shirts that said, “Vote for Daddy”—they are now 32 and 30.
I have worked with some fantastic officers in my constituency. I want to thank the presidents, some of whom are no longer with us: Jim Davenport, Geoffrey Stokes, David Palmer, Derek Crane, Rosemary Wright and Reg Ward. The chairmen I have worked with include Jack Goulton, Anita Wainwright, David Brooks, Carol Claridge, David Palmer, Derek Crane, Janice Richards, Mary Sherwin, Peter Bedford and Betty Snow. Betty was the treasurer of the Bosworth Conservatives for very nearly 40 years.
I echo the thoughts about the staff of the House. I thank the brilliant Library staff, the catering staff and the Doorkeepers. I also thank Postman John, who retired a day ago, not only for his service—for delivering the post—but for watering my plant, which some have seen; it has grown all the way around my office over the last 20 years.
Above all, I thank my constituents for voting for me and electing me eight times in the last nine general elections that I have stood in. I remember David Lightbown, my Whip, saying to me, “Never forget your constituency is everything”. Even though I voted to remain, when my constituents voted out—60% to 40%—I regarded myself from that moment onwards not as a representative but as a delegate, and I have voted faithfully ever since to get my constituents out of Europe under both the previous Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister.
I rather regret that I am addressing retiring Members and not new Members. If I had any advice, I would quote Seneca: “A man should choose his enemies carefully.” That is very important in politics. I have tried not to have any enemies, and I hope I have not got any in my constituency—I have people in to talk to me if they do not like what I have said. I would also reference Bevan: “Stay out of the bars and specialise”—very important too. I have specialised in a couple of fields, which I will touch on if I have time. Finally, I would quote David Lightbown again: never forget your constituency base.
I did a lot at the end of the cold war. I met President Gorbachev in Moscow and President Yeltsin. President Gorbachev, who was on the news a couple of days ago, said to us young politicians, “Politics will find your every weakness and test you in every way”. I thought at the time, “I don’t think this makes any sense”, but I now know he was absolutely correct.
I have long championed alternative and complementary medicine. I have backed the homeopaths right the way through. I remember saying to my former right hon. Friend, the late Lord Spicer, “Should I keep going with this subject?” He said, “David, all a Back Bencher can hope for is to be remembered for something”. I have championed that cause ever since. So I say this to the House as I finish: we have carbon footprint problems, but a real problem is the carbon footprint of medicines. It is not being addressed, but it is hugely carbon intensive.
Madam Deputy Speaker, it has been a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair. I am sorry you did not make it to the speakership in the election yesterday, but I congratulate Mr Speaker on his success, and I thank again my constituents, my staff, my family and my friends in this House. I shall miss it, but life goes on and I have a brilliant successor on the way in the Conservative candidate, Dr Luke Evans. I encourage my constituents to vote for him.
Seema Kennedy (South Ribble) (Con)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. As this is my first and last point of order, may I seek your guidance? Is it in order for me to record my thanks to my constituents and volunteers in South Ribble, my friends and family, my wonderful teams here in Westminster and in Longton, the many fine civil servants I have served with in three Departments and the staff of the House? Is it also in order for me to wish a civil and good-tempered campaign to the many friends of all parties I have made in my four and a half years in Parliament, and to wish a happy retirement to those who, like me—I cannot believe I am 45 and retiring—are leaving this unique and most special of workplaces? Finally, Madam Deputy Speaker, I hope it is in order for me to pay tribute to my beautiful boys. Their unstinting love and support have given me depths of courage I never knew I had. They mean the world to me.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)
To answer the hon. Lady’s point of order, no, none of that was in order, but I am delighted to have been able to give her the opportunity to make the tributes she wanted to make. I am sure the House will appreciate that because she holds a ministerial position, she cannot take part in this debate. Perhaps that it is a part of our procedure we ought to look at.