Christmas Adjournment

Jim Dickson Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

It is a genuine pleasure to speak in my first Christmas adjournment debate. I want to use the time to make two Christmas wishes and say some thank yous before we all begin driving home for Christmas.

In that song, Chris Rea says,

“It’s gonna take some time

But I’ll get there”

and nowhere is that more apt than in Dartford, where residents face gridlock, spilling from the river crossing at one end of the constituency and a long-term blockage to a major route out to the east of the constituency, where my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Dr Sullivan) represents the community.

As another song goes,

“I don’t want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need…

All I want for Christmas is”

spades in the ground on the proposed new lower Thames crossing. Perhaps taking my advice from the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers), it would be remiss of me not to mention it, and I hope that after almost 15 years of waiting 2025 will finally see the project started and I will not have to mention it again.

I also look forward to working in 2025 with Members from across the House, the other place and Ministers to promote fair economic growth across the Thames estuary. If I were allowed a second wish—I promise it is a very simple one—I would like to work with my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) to persuade the Government of the need to get on and get the Elizabeth line out to Ebbsfleet, where it should finish.

I want to use this time to thank some of the wonderful businesses, community groups and faith groups for welcoming me so warmly as their Member of Parliament since my election in July and for making my constituency such a fantastic place to live, full of civic life and activity. They are: We Are Beams and all the businesses that support them; Home-Start North West Kent; Dartford churches food bank, which keeps people from destitution; Rev. Mandy Young at St Alban and St Edmund King and Martyr churches; the Winners chapel in Dartford and its great community work; our great community pharmacies, which keep people well; Helping Hands in Swanscombe; the Ellenor and Demelza hospices, which received good news today from the Government about their funding; the Dartford gurdwara; the organisers of the festival of Ganesh from our Hindu community and the Nepalese teej; Dartford FC, which is currently a brilliant fourth in the Isthmian league and looking for promotion; Fairfield leisure centre and its great public health work with our local community; the team at All Directions; Millie Gooch and the Sober Girl Society, with her great work on alcohol harm; Sue Stockham and her formidable work combating ovarian cancer; Cohesion Plus, which organises the Dartford light festival, Black History Month and so much else; the Ebbsfleet events committee behind the Christmas fair and other great activity; Vijay and the great Dartford Living magazine and networking evenings; Dartford Central Park Athletics and Dartford Central Park parkrun, which has just celebrated its 10-year anniversary; and the amazing team at Dartford fire station.

I cannot let this speech end without congratulating my excellent colleagues on Dartford Labour group and, of course, my amazing team here in Westminster and out in my constituency. I hope the House will permit me one last indulgence: on behalf of everyone who lives in Dartford, I thank the emergency services staff who will work right through the Christmas break to keep us safe and well, including the staff at the wonderful Darent Valley hospital.

I will end by wishing hon. Members across the House, and all the House staff, a wonderful Christmas, particularly the Minister, who will be responding to this debate; she is one of the best things to come out of Dartford. I wish everyone here a merry Christmas and look forward to seeing them in the new year.