Sport: Team GB and ParalympicsGB

Danny Beales Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

It is a privilege to follow such wonderful speeches from right across the House, and particularly from my hon. Friends the Members for Corby and East Northamptonshire (Lee Barron) and for East Kilbride and Strathaven (Joani Reid). I thought that Uxbridge and South Ruislip was a tongue-twister, but I might have been slightly outdone by my hon. Friends.

I want to say thank you to the people of Uxbridge and South Ruislip for their perseverance. They have waited even longer for a Labour MP than I have waited to make my maiden speech. I remember meeting one gentleman who told me that he returned from war and voted for the first time on the Navy ship back to South Ruislip in 1945. He had voted Labour then for the first time and at every single election since. While he was delighted to see the 1945 Labour Government returned and the great things that they did, unfortunately he never subsequently saw a Labour MP in South Ruislip until today.

It is always a privilege and an honour to represent the communities that we are born in, we grew up in and we live in, and perhaps even more so when it initially seems like it might not happen. As I am sure colleagues know, six weeks feels like a long campaign. Well, trust me: two and a half years of campaigning feels like a lifetime, but it did give me the opportunity to speak to thousands of my constituents in every corner of my constituency.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Steve Tuckwell, who worked incredibly hard in the 10 months that he was our Member of Parliament. In the spirit of focusing on what unites us, I have to say that Steve and I have more in common than people might initially imagine. We were both born in Hillingdon hospital and we attended local schools. We even lived on the same street in South Ruislip—the street that my grandparents called home for many years. One of the first questions I am often asked is whether I share his love of fish and chips and will continue his infamous campaign for a new chippy in Uxbridge. Well, I must admit that that is one thing on which we differ slightly. I defer to him and his leadership of the fish and chip shop campaign.

Although that campaign certainly created a few headlines, Uxbridge and South Ruislip is no stranger to news headlines. Arguably, it is one of the most canvassed and media-interviewed constituencies in the country. At points, it has been hard for my constituents to walk down Uxbridge High Street without a journalist asking for their opinions about a former Prime Minister or the latest UK political drama. I am hoping that the next four years will be just as busy, but slightly less dramatic for my constituents than the previous four years. Although we do not share the same party affiliation, it must be said that Lord Randall of Uxbridge left big shoes to fill as a constituency MP, and I hope that I can replicate his reputation for being a hard-working and dedicated constituency MP.

Uxbridge and South Ruislip is not defined by any one issue or any one former political representative; it is defined instead by its rich heritage, its hard-working and aspirational communities, and its potential. It is a diverse place. Indeed, the contributions of its diverse communities are nothing new. Growing up, I remember the Polish war memorial standing in South Ruislip—a testament to the contribution that people coming to our country have made throughout our history and continue to make today. The memorial commemorates just some of the many service personnel who joined the UK war effort to fight fascism and to defend the values of democracy and liberalism. Over the summer, we have been reminded again that those values can never be taken for granted.

Today, my constituency remains home to many members of our amazing armed forces. RAF Northolt has a long and proud history of being the heart of the Royal Air Force, and our service personnel are among the very best of us. I have met far too many service families who have been let down and left without the right support or decent housing, and I want to be an MP who will champion them and their families. I look forward to learning more about the RAF in the parliamentary armed forces scheme this year.

Uxbridge and South Ruislip is also a place of innovation, of enterprise. It is home to wonderful schools, Uxbridge College, which has a new collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Brunel University. It is home to businesses big and small, and I am committed to working with them to ensure their opportunities to grow and the potential for good local jobs are realised.

Uxbridge and South Ruislip is also a place powered by the hard work of volunteers—groups I have met such as the Salvation Army, the Harefield Community Centre, ShopMobility and the Hillingdon Litter Pickers. I could go on. Many groups I have met, however, have struggled in recent years with local government cuts that have come to bite, and I hope to do all I can to support and to champion them in the years ahead.

As we debate the value of UK sport on the international stage and the amazing achievements of our Paralympians, such as Natasha Baker, the multiple-medal-winning dressage champion from Cowley, and Michael Sharkey from Hillingdon, it is also important that we recognise that, although Uxbridge is not home to the biggest sporting clubs or the biggest stadiums, it is home to the very best of British grassroots sport, again powered by communities and by volunteers. We are the adopted home of Wealdstone football club, which, through member donations and fan power alone, has grown and shown the way for fan-led football across this country. I am determined to work with them to secure their future with a long-term and sustainable home.

As with many towns and cities across our great nation, the NHS is right at the heart of our community, with many heroic doctors, nurses and care workers from right across the globe. I am committed to pressing for the urgent investment in healthcare that we need, as well as a new Hillingdon hospital, which is desperately, desperately needed.

Our area is rich in nature, with beautiful lakes, canals, rivers and countryside. It is both the edge of the city and the gateway to the Colne valley. Having met representatives of the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and the Colne Valley Regional Park, it is clear to me that we can and should do more to enhance our beautiful green spaces. I believe there is an opportunity to deliver the house building we desperately need and also ensure that the benefits are felt locally and that we enhance our nature-rich spaces.

It must be said, though, that despite being pleasant, green and welcoming, Hillingdon is also a place where life chances are not equal. Far too many people are struggling to make ends meet, and the public services they desperately need have been cut away. Like many colleagues in this House, far too many of the emails I receive are from parents struggling to get an education, health and care plan and the support they need for their children at school. There are section 21 evictions, extortionate lease- holder charges, damp, mould, disrepair, homelessness—on and on it goes. For me, these stories are all too familiar. They were my childhood: experiencing homelessness twice; having the bailiffs knocking at the front door; the emergency credit running down on the meter. These experiences opened my eyes to the importance of politics —to the importance of this place.

Growing up, I was desperate to see change in my community and my country. It has never seemed fair to me that, working two jobs, my mum was still unable to pay our bills. I felt as strongly as I do today that, as other Members have said, hard work should always pay. Working hard should mean that people can afford a safe, dry and decent home, and every child should have the opportunity for a great education. These are the values that unite the vast majority of us in this country and in Uxbridge and South Ruislip: hard work, playing by the rules and equal opportunities to succeed.

Despite those struggles, I have always been hugely appreciative of everyone who has supported and encouraged me and made today possible. There are far too many people to mention individually—I will not do what my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) did and have a long list of people but forget some—but I thank my friends and family, in particular my mum, who is in the Gallery. She sacrificed so much to give me the chance to stand here today. I thank my former teachers, colleagues and councillors. My 10-year period in local government was an incredible opportunity and a privilege, allowing me to build the next generation of council homes, and to hand over keys to families and see their faces light up. During that time, it was clear to me that local action would never be enough. The challenges in the housing sector required national action. We need to deliver millions more homes across this country. I welcome this Government’s commitment to do that, and to develop the homelessness strategy.

During my professional career in the health sector I worked to ensure that new diabetes technologies were available on the NHS, and to reduce new HIV transmissions. I have seen time and again the need to modernise and improve our health system so that it genuinely puts the needs of patient first, and promotes good health as much as it treats ill health. Those are the challenges I look forward to playing my part in tackling in the months and years ahead.

To finish as I started, the journey from homelessness to the House of Commons is one not too often made, but I want to do my bit so that every child in this country can follow in my footsteps, and no one is held back by the experience of homelessness in our country. I thank everyone who has supported me in some way. I thank the voters of Uxbridge and South Ruislip who have returned me as their first Labour MP. I want to reiterate to them that, in me, they have a local champion, a national voice, and someone working tirelessly for them to deliver our hospital, improve our schools and high streets and tackle our housing crisis, to ensure that we have even more to be proud of in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call Tom Hayes to make his maiden speech.