Jo Churchill (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)
It is a pleasure to speak, Mr Deputy Speaker, but it is not without a sad heart. When I was thinking about what to say, I thought, “Should it be a thank you?” We are sent here by our constituents; in my case, they have sent me three times, for which I am inordinately grateful, but the greater privilege is that they have let me into their lives, to help them. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) said, we should always remember that we come here to serve. We should serve with courtesy and with a smile, and ensure we are always second in the queue to our constituents.
I have had the most enormous amount of fun, whether in my constituency or in this place. I find it very difficult to run through my list of thank yous, but my first thank you is to my team, particularly to Lesley. Lesley started walking the streets with me—no comments, please; I am sorry for the turn of phrase, Lesley—when I was selected as a candidate back in 2014. She is still in my office, running it and being a star. Supporting her now are Wendy, Laura and the wonderful Helyn, who previously worked next door for my right hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock). Lesley has served this place for 42 years. It is people like her, and Carolyn, who came before, and Harry, who I thank. It is them, as staff, who do the lion’s share of caring for our constituents, week to week.
I place on record, as many others have done, my thanks to the Doorkeepers, who are the glue who stick us all together. As they hugged me this morning and yesterday, their gold emblems jangled—[Laughter.] Come on, ladies and gentlemen! They are the Crown jewels.
Jo Churchill
It’s not going anywhere. They are the glue, as are those in the Tea Room—I will be sad never again to have that special cup of coffee, with the little heart on top, poured by Godfrey; those who ensure our Committees are ready and our Select Committees are doing the important job of holding us to account; and the Clerks, who will answer any question of process. I give my thanks to them. If it were not for them, we could not uphold democracy; we do that and we do it well. We work across the House as people who come here to serve. When we lose the ability to do that courteously and kindly, and to work for the betterment of each and every person in this country, we are all losers, so long may that work continue.
After the glue, I want to thank all those who have served me in my private office or in the civil service. I had the privilege of being asked to go to the Whips Office. There are many former and current Whips in the Chamber. The Comptroller of His Majesty’s Household, my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Rebecca Harris), is in my view a star among us. She makes sure this Chamber runs. She will sit in the early morning and have her breakfast, which is often a piece of brie or gorgonzola that she picked up from Marks & Spencer on her way in. You are never quite sure if it is your feet, or if she is having her breakfast. She is an institution. Long may the people of Castle Point return our special star.
To the Deputy Chief Whip, my right hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones), and to others, I say thank you. Thank you for never disclosing that I probably have one of the bawdiest senses of humour in this place. Near or far—if anyone remembers—we serve. Although the Whips Office perhaps is not always spoken about in the best of terms, we care. Those of us there care very deeply about ensuring that our colleagues in this place are looked after. It is not only about the votes; it is about making sure that, in one of the toughest jobs that we are called to do—because others are right that it is a vocation—we are supported. We support those in our “family”, and also look across the House to help others where we can. To the Whips Office, in which I was a retread, I say: thank you very much. It was truly the honour of my life to serve in the Royal Household, to be at the King’s coronation with my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point and my right hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton, and to walk in front of the coffin of Her late, beloved Majesty.
I went from the Whips Office to the Department of Health and Social Care, and a pandemic occurred. In many ways, our finest and our best came to the fore. We should never forget that. It took a toll on our country and our finances, but we showed ourselves at our best: agile, committed, caring and inventive, as my right hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock), under whom I served, said. The vaccine, developed by the fine minds that we have running our businesses and employing our people, did us proud. Serving alongside the chief medical officer and the two deputies, the chief dental officer and others was another privilege of being in this place.
Taking the gene editing Bill through Parliament when I was in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was a Brexit bonus to me, and hopefully it will serve as a lasting legacy to farming. It was not the way I would have chosen, but it is the way we are walking, and you are better off finding sunshine when you walk than always seeing rain when you look upwards.
I came here as a cancer campaigner, having had it three times. Life is a joy. To represent is a joy. I will leave this place as Employment Minister, doing something that I think is incredibly special and very Conservative: making sure people have jobs. If we are about anything, it is making work for people and giving people dignity. With dignity, people can make choices, and with choices they can thrive.
That brings me on to the final bit. Our jobs mean that we can look after our families, and for me, my family is everything. I would not be here if my husband had not said to me, “Be happy and work for your constituents; I will support you all the way.” Many have spoken about the toll taken on families; for my family, it has been no different, so I am going to enjoy them—the whole noisy, bawdy bunch of them—because they are the very best thing in my life.
I leave here with a heavy heart because I adore this place. We are lucky. I adore many of you. I think we are a fantastic party. To be one of the blues is to be on the best team, in my view, and I will carry on fighting for the blues, because this country needs compassion, hard work, and people who believe that we are the best to represent them. I have represented the very best of this country in Bury St Edmunds, and I will miss you all. Serve our country well, because it truly is the best. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
And thank you, Jo. I gave you a hug last night; I am sorry there was nothing jangling!
Jo Churchill
If hugs paid, I would be very rich. The last couple of days have been wonderful. To all those constituents who have written to me, thank you.
Sir Alok Sharma (Reading West) (Con)
I welcome this opportunity to put on record my heartfelt thanks to all those with whom I have worked during my time as a Member of Parliament for Reading West. I am enormously grateful to my constituents for putting their faith in me through four successive general elections, and over the past 14 years as an MP—and indeed, during the four years prior to that, when I was a parliamentary candidate.
I have had the great joy of working with so many brilliant people and organisations across Reading. Together, we campaigned successfully to set up one of the first free schools in the country, the All Saints Junior School, which is still rated outstanding. We founded a new secondary school, the Wren School. We won funding for upgrades for local train stations at Theale and Tilehurst, and money for a new station in Green Park. We got the money for and ensured the construction of flood-alleviation schemes in Tilehurst and Purley. We secured a vital road crossing upgrade on Dee Road in the vicinity of several primary schools. We kept Pincents hill green. We campaigned successfully together for stronger sentences for dangerous driving, and to strengthen legislation to deal with illegal encampments. We got the No. 33 bus redirected from the Birds estate. I could go on, and every colleague here will have a similar and probably longer list, but the one thing that I hope we will all agree on is that without the strength, energy and commitment of our constituents, none of what we do locally would be possible. I therefore thank each and every one of my constituents from the bottom of my heart.
It has been a real privilege to serve in government in a whole range of roles and Departments. I came into the role of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary as the covid pandemic came upon us. I want to thank everyone, in the Government system and outside, who played such vital and important roles in making sure that we got support to millions of businesses and supported jobs up and down our country. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill) said, we should be proud of what we did as a Government during the covid pandemic.
My right hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) is not in his seat, but he talked about vaccines. The vaccines taskforce sat within the Business Department, and we worked collaboratively across Government. If ever there was a beacon for how a national mission should be deployed, it would be the vaccines taskforce. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds, I place on record my grateful thanks to all the scientists, the folks in industry, the NHS, and the civil servants who worked so hard to ensure that our country was the first in the world to deploy a vaccine.
The last of the roles that I did in government was on COP26. I have been told by very many people internationally, including those in foreign governance, that COP26 was one of the biggest soft power wins for the UK in decades. We led the world on the green agenda, and that would not have been possible without the tireless work of so many of our brilliant civil servants, many of them unsung heroes, and, of course, the UK’s outstanding diplomats across the world. When I worked on COP, I genuinely felt that I stood on the shoulders of giants. We have for many years enjoyed a strong political consensus on the need to reach net zero in our economy. I believe—and I know that many friends here believe it, too—that we are stronger for it. I very much hope that that consensus is maintained in the critical decades ahead, because I can tell you that the world wants our country to continue to lead on the green agenda, and I hope that we will.
I also thank my friends in the Reading West Conservative Association, who first put their faith in me when they selected me in 2006. As all other colleagues have done, I thank my brilliant parliamentary staff from over the years. It is always invidious to name colleagues and pick them out, but I particularly want to place on the record my thanks to Jessica Inns, who has patiently worked with me for many more years than I think she would care to remember, and to Will Saunders and Rachel Quinn, who will continue to work right to the last day for the constituents of Reading West. I know that all their mums and dads will be thrilled that they are getting a mention in Hansard.
I also thank my family: my wonderful mum and dad, my fabulous wife Ingela, and my brilliant daughters Isabella and Charlotta. As we all know, we could not do this without their support. Serving as a Member of Parliament is a rare privilege, and I will always carry a piece of this place in my heart.
Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con)
I shall be brief, mainly because I have to leave shortly to collect my son from nursery. Like many other Members here, I want to start with thanks to family. The immense patience of my wife over the past 14 years with my career in politics has been something to behold, but my mother has dealt with 45 years of having a husband or son as Member of Parliament for Worcester. She has done immense service to the constituency and to our country from the way she supported my father, and she has been an inspiration to me.
I want to very briefly talk about my passion for education. I made my maiden speech on the importance of education. It was great to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) and, indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond), who spoke about what we have been able to do as a Government for education. I have been banging on about school funding for my entire time in Parliament. It is a deeply nerdy subject, but it is vital, and colleagues on both sides of the House have engaged in the debates. We have made some real strides, but there is much more to do.
I point to recommendations of the Education Committee with regard to properly funding the work of teaching assistants in schools as a key objective for the next Parliament. We have had some great debates with contributions from Members on both sides of the House about the importance of meeting special educational needs; the House passed some fantastic legislation in 2014 but it has not achieved its objectives, and weneed to ensure that those needs are better funded in the future.
I have been honoured to chair the Education Committee for the last year or so. I pay tribute—as has everyone else—to all the staff in the House, but I pay particular tribute to the Clerks of our Select Committees, who work incredibly hard behind the scenes to ensure that we can produce great recommendations on a cross-party basis. They helped me to produce a report just last week; I have it here, and I commend it to the House. Given some of the comments that we have heard from hon. Members in all parts of the House about the challenges of social media, I am delighted that we were able to hold a meeting yesterday in the Reasons Room, where the brilliant hon. Member for Gateshead (Ian Mearns) was able to deliver cross-party support for our report on screen time. I seriously recommend that the next Government, from whatever side they come, engage with the recommendations of that report to better protect our children from the perils of social media. I think there is real concern about that across all parties in the House, and there are strides that can be made.
Let me end by thanking my constituents in Worcester for giving me the privilege of my life by enabling me to serve such a wonderful constituency, and thanking colleagues across the House for being such great friends.