Budget Resolutions

Gareth Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 11th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Davies (Grantham and Stamford) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech as the new Member of Parliament for Grantham and Stamford. I, of course, follow my most immediate predecessor, Nick Boles, who served in this House for nine years and held two important ministerial positions. He had an office that I did not inherit—it was an office dubbed “the ballroom”, which had enough space for his lunchtime yoga sessions and a free-standing wardrobe. Now whether or not this was to accommodate his towering presence will be a matter for debate with the Whips, but it does make sense of why I am now living in a basement in this place. I of course send to him my very best wishes for a long, happy and healthy future.

I am fortunate to represent one of the most beautiful constituencies in the country. Stamford, in the very south of my constituency, is an ancient medieval town, with touches of modernity from the Georgian period; the 18th century is what counts as modern in Stamford, and that is exactly how we like it. The buildings are formed from beautiful sandstone that seems to shine spectacularly in the shimmering Stamford sun. This amazing settlement, which grows and creaks with an ever-increasing number of visitors, faces the challenge of accommodating so many within such little space.

In the heart of the constituency is Bourne, a fast-growing town known for its friendly people and amazing schools. As you travel between our towns, you pass some of the most wonderful countryside, passing farmland critical to our sustainable future and postcard picture villages, where the community spirit is strong, but public transportation is weak. These communities stick together, and I will stick by them and push for better connectivity.

As you travel up the A1, you reach the historic town of Grantham. Grantham is a wonderful place to live, with its brilliant shops, businesses and schools. But as its population grows, we also face our challenges—and centre stage is our hospital. We rely on hospitals in the best and worst times of our lives, yet three and a half years ago Grantham Hospital was closed overnight. Now, as the new MP, I am pushing hard to get those doors back open 24 hours a day.

I want Grantham’s future to be as significant as its past. In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton sat under an apple tree in the garden of Woolsthorpe Manor and discovered gravity. In 1925, a future Prime Minister was born in the upstairs room of a grocer’s shop on the corner of North Parade and Broad Street. Margaret Thatcher went from a Grantham grocer’s shop to the great halls of British power.

It is my great honour to represent the home of so many former servicemen and servicewomen. Lincolnshire is bomber country, and we have a proud military past. Seventy-six years ago, some of the first troops to land in France took off from North Witham in my constituency as part of the D-day landings. For as long as I am in this place, I will never forget the sacrifices that they made for our freedom. Nobody ever asked whether a fallen serviceman was Labour, Conservative or Liberal—they were simply British heroes.

There has been a lot of press speculation leading up to today, but it was not all about my maiden speech—shocking, I know. Some were interested in the words spoken earlier by my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Rishi Sunak), and now I know why. Today’s Budget sets out a clear response to the coronavirus, but also sets a clear path for our country as the Government seek to level up and spread opportunity more widely. This agenda is close to my heart, as a northern, state school educated son of a state primary school teacher mum and small business owner dad. I was delighted to hear the support for small businesses announced today, because as a child I grew up seeing how hard it is to start a business and get it going. We have to remember that behind every business is someone who had an idea, saw it through, stuck it out and made it work. At the end of the day, businesses are people—they are the faces, the families and the stories that are the lifeblood of all our communities. That is why it is so important that this Budget today supports them.

I myself have just come out of a very happy and long career in business in the financial services sector. That sector is ripe for innovation as we seek to fund our future infrastructure and transition to a zero-carbon economy. I look forward to contributing in whatever way I can in the years to come in these areas. But I know that whatever I do in this place would not be possible if it were not for my incredibly supportive and very patient wife Laura, my parents and my brother, who, true to form, are all in the Gallery today. Whatever I achieve in this place, I hope I can make them proud.