Baroness Harman
Main Page: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)(3 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I know the family will appreciate your words. As the House knows, Cheryl passed away on 4 April, courageously fighting against the odds with cheerfulness and bravery.
Cheryl, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr Evans), now a Deputy Speaker, and I came into the House together 29 years ago and became firm friends. I attended the funeral of her beloved husband Jack in 2019 and I was in touch with her throughout her illness. It is with enormous sadness that I am privileged to pay tribute to such a special person.
After several jobs in the Conservative Opposition years, Cheryl was appointed Secretary of State for Wales and was much respected for singing the Welsh national anthem in the Welsh language. After leaving Cabinet, as you said, Mr Speaker, she stepped up her opposition to HS2. There was not a debate or question in this House on the matter where she did not speak. After the House changed the rules, on 19 January this year, Cheryl was able to make her final speech, fittingly, on consideration of Lords amendments to the High Speed Rail (West Midlands-Crewe) Bill. Despite her advancing illness, she was in her usual feisty form, denigrating the whole HS2 project. I know that the opportunity meant a huge amount to her. I thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing the House to change the rules.
As you said, Cheryl campaigned alongside autistic people and their families for many years and successfully introduced the Autism Act 2009. She was also a champion for people with epilepsy, raising the profile of the condition throughout her parliamentary work. Cheryl rejoined the Public Accounts Committee after the 2019 election and many a permanent secretary feared the force of Cheryl’s direct and well-informed questions, but it was working with Cheryl on the 1922 executive, so ably chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Sir Graham Brady), that I observed her real qualities. Her bright mind always enabled her to calmly put things into perspective and provide quiet, sensible and sound advice. She had a real sense of caring for people, particularly when they were in difficult or sad circumstances. She would always be there, offering them words of comfort.
In saying farewell to Cheryl—her family and friends, her constituents and staff—the whole House has lost one of its hardest working Members. She had an enormously generous heart. She was always prepared to have a kindly word for anyone in trouble. Above all, she was a fierce and effective defender of the interests of her constituents in Chesham and Amersham. People such as Cheryl, who enter politics for the very best of reasons, are rare indeed and she will be sorely missed.
Ms Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) (Lab) [V]
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I was so, so sad to hear of the death of Cheryl Gillan at the age of only 68. Sometimes politics can feel like a hostile environment, which is why Cheryl was so important as somebody who was just completely warm, non-judgmental, vivacious and outgoing. She called us all “darling” not because she had forgotten our names, but because she wanted to put everybody at their ease.
When she came to the House in 1992 as one of 336 Conservative MPs, she was one of only 20 women, so she was very much a pioneer of women’s presence on the Tory Benches. Over the three decades she served in the House, she very proudly and protectively watched over the growing flock of Tory women MPs.
It was very energising to work with her on her autism campaigns. It was admirable to see her being such a thorn in the side of the Government, fiercely championing her constituents in their opposition to HS2. Above all, I know she will be missed by her family, to whom I extend my deepest, deepest condolences. We really, really will miss her. I can hardly believe that she is not on the green Benches today. She was such a presence in the House, becoming a grandee in the 1922 committee, but never grand.
I would like to just briefly mention the loss of Shirley Williams, who was a Member of our House from 1964 to 1983. I briefly crossed over with her when I came in in 1982. To my young and pregnant self, despite the acrimony and bitterness between the Labour party—I was a Labour MP—and the Social Democratic party, of which she was a member, she warmly welcomed me to the House. She was an extraordinary politician and an extraordinary intellect. She was vilified by the press for her wild hair and overflowing handbag. She, too, was a woman in a man’s world, and a champion of social justice and an instinctive feminist. I extend my sympathies to her family, too.
Sir Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West) (Con)
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you for this opportunity to pay tribute to a great friend, Dame Cheryl Gillan, and to the former Members who have sadly passed in recent days. I am grateful to colleagues on both sides of the House for the warmth of their remarks about Cheryl both today and in the days since she died, on 4 April.
Mr Speaker, you mentioned Cheryl’s kindness to new Members. I was a beneficiary of that in 1997. As an Education Minister in the previous Parliament, she was very active in making sure that those of us with an interest in and a passion for education got involved in dealing with the first piece of legislation from that Government.
Much has also been made of the great work she did in promoting the interests of women in the House of Commons. I would also want to add that I ended up being perhaps the greatest beneficiary of her sterling qualities in the few years she spent as vice-chairman of the 1922 committee. I certainly benefited from her great unflappable qualities. She was a very smart, very stylish woman and always there to give support. As soon as something happened—we had one or two emergencies in the last few years—a call to Cheryl would immediately settle my nerves and I would know that everything would be done as well as it could possibly be done.