Newport Chartist Commemorations: Strengthening Democracy

Debate between Jim Shannon and Jessica Morden

Monday 4th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

I am back, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am grateful to Mr Speaker and to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for having granted this debate on exactly the night when the Newport rising took place 185 years ago. It was a night on which thousands of working people from across the south Wales valleys marched on the Westgate hotel, in my constituency, in the fight for the vote and the right of ordinary people to have their voices heard. Earlier this evening, at Newport cathedral, the annual commemoration took place at the unmarked graves of ten of more than 20 chartists who lost their lives that night. I am grateful to my friend and parliamentary neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones), for covering the other end of the M4 by being there tonight and having said some lovely things, I hear.

The Newport rising was the last armed rebellion against authority in Britain. We are proud of our Chartists and proud of the role they played in shaping our modern democracy. I have called the debate tonight to honour the sacrifice of our local heroes, the Gwent Chartists, who remind us that the freedoms and democratic rights we enjoy today were secured by ordinary men and women. It comes on the eve of the United States’ election, when democracy feels fragile around the world and faith in politics in this country is low. It is incumbent on our new Labour Government to work to restore faith in politics through the way we act and in the reforms we propose.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Lady for securing the debate. It is an important occasion, as she has expressed. As a proud working-class man, I am thankful for the members of the Newport Chartists, who did what good men do to secure democracy; they put it all on the line. Does the hon. Lady agree that their deaths brought forward the battle for a vote for all, which we often take for granted today? Does she agree that we need to educate our children about the battles for the chance to vote in order to instil the mentality that voting is a privilege, fought for with blood, sweat and tears?

[Jessica Morden]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention—I could not have put it better myself. I thank all the hon. Members who have turned up for the debate this evening. It seems to be quite popular for an Adjournment debate at 10 pm on a Monday night, and for that I am most grateful.

The Chartist movement of the 1830s and 1840s was the first mass working-class movement and was born, in part, out of unhappiness with the Great Reform Act 1832. Passed on the third time of asking by the pro-reform Whig Government, the Act was limited in its ambition to extend the franchise, and ultimately left most working-class people still without the right to vote. The grassroots campaign behind the push for reform in the early 1830s included organised working and middle-class groups, who advocated for widening the right to vote to all tax-paying men and more. However, the campaign disbanded following the passage of the disappointing Great Reform Act. Those undelivered demands for reform would go on to form part of the “People’s Charter”, from which Chartism derives its name.

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[Jessica Morden]

I am sure that it does not. I will not be drawn into talking about the Welsh elections in tonight’s debate, but it is a system that has been devised by the Welsh Senedd and voted on, and I am sure that it is one in which people will be able to participate fully when the elections come in 2026.

The message of the Chartists is more important than ever, especially today, on the eve of the US elections and amid global turmoil. We have witnessed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, electoral uncertainty in Moldova, increasing threats to Taiwan from China, and more. Threats to democracy globally are manifesting in different ways but all combining to make people feel that politics and democracy cannot fix anything, yet having our say, from voting to engaging with our politicians, taking part in public consultations or demonstrating, matters and makes a difference. We live in a world where more people than at any time in history are able to have a say in who makes the rules. As all of us who sit in this place say, every vote counts and can make a difference. I know that the Foreign Secretary and his fellow Ministers will hold to account, and take action against, those who seek to cynically undermine and degrade the integrity of democracies around the world, including our own, and support those fighting to protect them.

Closer to home, 185 years after the Newport rising, working people used those same hard-won rights this summer to return a majority of Labour MPs in each nation and region of Great Britain, delivering a Government determined to change our country. For the first time in 14 years, I am proud to be part of a Labour Government in Westminster who will, over the course of the next five years, deliver on our manifesto promises to double down on the Chartist legacy, to strengthen our democracy in the interests of working people, and to restore public trust in politics as a force for good.

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Lady epitomises the very thing that the Newport Chartists stood for, and I congratulate her on that. What she refers to affected everywhere in the United Kingdom. The people of Northern Ireland realised that they should also try to achieve working-class rights, so what people did in Newport meant the same for us in Northern Ireland.

[Jessica Morden]

I agree, and I thank the hon. Member for making that point.

This Government will respond to the struggles of working people, and will not duck the necessary but difficult decisions for fear of being unpopular. We will follow the example set by our Welsh Labour Government by extending the right to vote in all elections to 16 and 17-year-olds. If someone can leave school, work full time and join the Army, they can be trusted to have their say in the country’s future. This Government have already introduced the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill to remove hereditary peers, because power should not be the inherent right of a select and aristocratic few. This Government will establish an independent ethics and integrity commission, strengthen the role of the independent adviser on ministerial standards, update the ministerial code, modernise and reform House of Commons procedures, ban MPs’ second jobs, address the inconsistencies in voter ID rules that prevent people from voting, and introduce an elections Bill.

I am proud that the previous Labour Government brought in devolution to Wales and Scotland. It is significant that, for the first time in 14 years, we have a UK Prime Minister committed not to the failed Tory experiment of muscular Unionism, but to returning powers to those with skin in the game, so that we are more directly answerable and intimately connected to local people and their needs, and to a Labour Government in Westminster working with, rather than against, our Welsh Labour Government to deliver for the people of Wales. That is a big change. If the Chartists taught us anything, it is that Westminster does not always know best.

I warmly welcome the private Member’s Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Tracy Gilbert), which would bring consistency in voter registration by enabling the Welsh and Scottish Governments to allow online applications for proxy and postal votes in local elections. It would be good if the Minister gave more detail on the Government’s plan to strengthen the integrity of elections and encourage wider participation.

Our constituents would expect no less from the United Kingdom than for national and regional leaders to work together to change our country and build a better future. The establishment of the Council of the Nations and Regions is a welcome step to ensure that, while we are delivering on our commitments to push power out of Westminster, we do not repeat the mistakes of “devolve and forget”. Can the Minister reassure me that that new engagement framework will be regular and reliable and will not fade with time?

On this 185th anniversary of the Newport rising, let us remember the legacy that those involved in it left us: a vote, a voice and, more than that, a vision—a vision for the future that challenges us to protect those freedoms and use them powerfully to confront injustice, build unity and keep hope alive for all. Let us ensure that the new Labour Government carry forward the 19th century Gwent Chartists’ legacy in delivering those important reforms to make our democracy fit for the 21st century. As the Member for Newport East, I will be proud to support them.