David Williams
Main Page: David Williams (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent North)
David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)
It is an absolute honour to speak in my first Sir David Amess Adjournment debate. Sir David, as we all know, worked tirelessly for his constituents. He set the right example for us all by demonstrating that politics at its best is about service, not spectacle.
It remains the honour of my life to speak up for the good people of Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove. People in our area have had a tough time of it. It was heartbreaking to see our community hollowed out by 14 years of austerity. Today, however, I am proud to say that the tide is turning. After years of decline, we are finally starting to fix what has been broken. We are giving our young people the best start in life. I recall, long before I became an MP, hearing heartbreaking stories of kids arriving at school hungry. We got to work, and over the past few months we have started to roll out free breakfast clubs at Milton and Greenways primary academies, and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting both of them. Breakfast clubs will soon be available at all primary schools in Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove, and that fills me with pride.
Smallthorne primary academy is doing fantastic work at the heart of the community. For years, parents throughout our area have missed out on opportunities because of the lack of affordable childcare, but now, with a Labour Government determined to ease the burden for families, we have secured funding for a school-based nursery providing much-needed places, and I will be pressing the Government for more school-based nurseries in my constituency.
I am excited at the prospect of returning, this Friday, to a very important organisation that shaped my life and my values: YMCA North Staffordshire. It is where I worked for nearly two decades before I became an MP, and it is where I learned what it means to serve. I cannot wait to go back to open its brand-new youth hub, a place of hope, guidance and opportunity, and a place where young people can see that someone believes in them.
None of the work that I do would be possible without the tireless efforts of the team I have around me. In the past year, we have made more than 200 visits to schools, charities, businesses and residents’ groups, and we have responded to more than 4,000 individual pieces of casework on behalf of local people—for instance, securing a place for a child in Fegg Hayes to go to a local SEND school after the family had been turned down, restoring a £27,000 maternity payment to a mum in Talke after an incorrect deduction, and securing a 19,000 back-payment of pension credit for a Burslem resident who had been waiting for over a year. All that work transforms lives, but there is still so much more to do.
A few months after I was elected, both Moorcroft and Royal Stafford, which had sustained our local economy for many generations, announced that they were closing down. It was a devastating blow to our area and our ceramics industry. Happily, though, there are glimmers of hope. Will Moorcroft, the grandson of Moorcroft’s founder, has stepped in to safeguard the future of this iconic brand. He has protected a skilled workforce and preserved a name that carries real pride across the Potteries. Meanwhile, down the road in Burslem—the mother town of our potteries—T. G. Green has stepped in to produce fine products at the Royal Stafford site.
This is personal for me, because my mum and grandad both worked in the potbanks of Tunstall and Burslem. I know what the industry means to local families, and I have kept my word by pressing Ministers for support whenever I have had the opportunity, including in a Westminster Hall debate that I secured back in March. I am pleased that ceramics is now recognised as a foundation industry in the industrial strategy and that support with electricity costs will come in 2027, but I will continue to raise with Ministers the need for additional support for the sector between now and then.
Meanwhile, too many of our historic buildings still lie empty, decaying and increasingly beyond repair, but with the right support many could be brought back into use. They could be converted into affordable, high-quality homes that protect our heritage, meet urgent housing need and help to sustain our high streets and town centres. Under Labour, we must go further and faster to make that a reality, and I urge the relevant Ministers to proactively engage with me to look at what steps can be taken. I would welcome visits to my constituency so that they can see its potential at first hand.
Finally, I cannot stand here today without paying tribute to Sharlotte-Sky Naglis and her family. Sharlotte was only six years old when she was tragically killed by a driver who was twice the legal limit for alcohol and under the influence of drugs. Since then, her family have shown remarkable strength and determination in their campaign to amend the law on blood testing after fatal road collisions. I have continued to press for the Road Traffic Act 1988 to be amended to allow for blood samples to be tested without consent in the most serious cases where a life has been lost. I am grateful to the Transport Secretary, the Roads Minister and colleagues in the Department for Transport for their engagement on this matter, and I look forward to that continuing.
Our community has known hardship and difficulties, but we are strong. We have been knocked down, but Stokies will never, ever be knocked out. Now, with a Government who finally have our backs, we can start building a better future for every child, every family, every person and every neighbourhood across Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove.
Several hon. Members rose—