Valedictory Debate

John Baron Excerpts

Friday 24th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to catch your eye for what will be the last time in my 23 years in this place. Like all Members who have spoken in this wonderful debate, it is going to be a great wrench to leave the House. The only person who may have a slight skip in his step is Mr Speaker, who will no longer have to consider the many applications for urgent questions that I have submitted over the years. It has been a wonderful time and, as briefly as I can, I want to thank all those who have made it possible.

As all other hon. Members have done, I want to thank everybody who works here. Little do they realise, but they are supporting a great parliamentary system. I want to thank the Doorkeepers, the caterers, the security staff and the Librarians—I want to thank everybody who works here, without exception. They keep the show on the road. Every single one of them supports our great parliamentary system. We thank them for that.

Reflecting for a moment, I suggest that much has changed since I joined the House in 2001 and almost all for the better. For a start, the hours are much more family-friendly. As a green MP in 2001, there was no briefing. My hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) basically made the point that we were thrown into the Chamber—I would not say literally—and told to get on with it and learn. Things have also changed for the better in that we have many more lady MPs, which has been a great improvement to the House.

Things have changed for the better, but what has not changed for the better has been a narrative that has grown stronger in recent times and in certain quarters that our parliamentary system is broken and not performing as it should. I would contend that that is not true. While I accept that it is not perfect, I do believe that it is representative and effective, and is respected around the world. For example, it managed to contain the Brexit debate—probably the most passionate debate that we have had in a generation—and channel it accordingly in an open way that I think few other countries could have pulled off.

This Chamber remains the crucible where the matters of the day are debated and resolved. Its fulcrum is the obligation that we all tell the truth in this place. We should never forget that MPs can still effect great change. I, like other colleagues, look back with fondness and satisfaction at the campaigns and good causes that I have participated in, whether campaigning for our 2015 manifesto to contain the promise of an EU referendum, against arming the Syrian rebels, for official recognition and support of our nuclear test veterans, greater funding for the British Council, or securing a focus on outcomes when it comes to cancer, as was embodied in section 5 of the Health and Care Act 2022. I thank all colleagues—many of them are in their places—who supported that effort.

Of course one has not always been successful; none of us is. We can all list our somewhat disappointments. I opposed our Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan interventions and, despite the passionate debates that we had on those occasions, we still intervened. It was another sadness to me that we did not manage to do more at the time to get the Government to think again about defence cuts.

My amendment in 2019 on the Northern Ireland backstop was defeated by the largest recorded parliamentary majority in history: 600 to 24. It is still fresh in the mind. I remind colleagues that one just has to keep going on. Perseverance has a quality all of its own and my goodness me, there were times in those years when we needed it.

I have heard so many interesting speeches in the Chamber this afternoon, and it has been a real pleasure to be part of this debate, but I would suggest to colleagues that humility is also a great quality. We should never forget that. I was reminded of that recently by my constituency team, who put it to me that, in all the elections I have fought since 2001, the less time I spent in the constituency, the more my majority went up. Indeed, that is true: I have had an increased majority in every single general election. I will not say that I am not a very diligent constituency MP, but perhaps—perhaps—I have eased off just a little bit since 2001.

Overall, I would say that, with hard work and perseverance and by garnering support when needed, MPs can still effect change and truly help their constituents, occasionally with the help of the occupant of the Chair—as you well know, Mr Speaker. It is nice to see you in your place; and now that you are here, may I thank you personally for everything you do for this place? You are the guardian of something very precious in that Chair, and your presence there has been a real source of strength and support for Members across the House in making sure that our parliamentary system remains true to itself and does not meander. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Speaker.

I have enjoyed my time on Select Committees and all-party groups, which is where we see the best of cross-party work. That is something we all value in this place. I concur with the many observations made by colleagues that we are at our very best if we can foster consensus across the divide and move an issue forward. Like many others, I have certainly benefited from cross-party consensus, when we have been able to engineer it.

I come back to the effectiveness of this place and the minority of individuals, increasingly noisy though they are, who say that this place is broken or not effective, or that it needs to be improved because it does not represent its constituents. That view is completely wrong, and I say that as somebody who has been in this place for 23 years—and there are colleagues who have been here much longer than I. This place is effective, and we should remember that. I would therefore caution against ill thought-through, sweeping reforms, which will harm our democracy. Past innovations, such as the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, have served to highlight the wisdom of convention, I would suggest. We should be wary of talk of, for example, a written constitution, proportional representation or House of Lords reform. We should be careful what we wish for. We are here courtesy of the accumulated wisdom of previous generations. We discard that experience and wisdom at our peril if we do not consider things very carefully.

I wish all colleagues well, past and present, and I wish those staying on good fortune in the next Parliament. I will certainly be keeping in touch with many friends. My right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), a very good friend, has been sitting next to me for most of this debate, although he has had to go, and there are many other colleagues here who I look forward to keeping in touch with after I leave.

Naturally, I would like to thank my constituency association, along with councillors, activists and the many friends I have made in the constituency, for their contributions and friendship over so many years. The association stood by me on a number of occasions when I did not always agree with my party. The closest I came to being removed as an MP was in 2003. It was not an election year, but there was an extraordinary general meeting to—I was going to say “to deselect me”, which I think is what it was in effect, because of the way I voted on the Iraq war.

Opinion was very divided, as colleagues may remember—I see my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr Bacon), a good friend, sitting on the Bench at the front, who will remember that moment. Having voted against my Whip, I had to resign from the Front Bench. That caused a stir in the association, but we got through it, and since then I have had no issue at all with my association over not always agreeing—or not agreeing, I should say—with our interventions in Libya or Afghanistan, post 2001. The association understood that MPs are representatives, not delegates.

I would like to thank my constituents for their support, and for ensuring that I won increased majorities over the years. I am going to stay connected to my wonderful constituency of Basildon and Billericay, which it has been a great honour to serve, by participating in the annual fun walk—it is now a charity—that I founded in 2002. Since then, it has raised around £1.5 million for good causes across the constituency and beyond. I may be stepping down as the MP, but I will certainly stay connected to the local area by staying involved with that charity event as chair of the trustees.

I would like to thank my staff, to whom I owe so much. My constituency team—Jo Turner and Annie Akinin—have been with me since I became an MP. My London team—Claire Lumby, Selina Short and Benjamin Yates, who is sitting in the Gallery—have been with me for up to 16 years. They have 80 years of service between them, which is a rarity in this place, and my constituents have benefited as a result. I am very grateful to them, and I am proud of them for everything we have achieved together.

Finally, I would like to thank my wife Thalia, my daughters and my wider family—whether they are still with us or not—for their support over the years. It has always added perspective and balance to my endeavours in this place, which I shall miss. It has been a great honour to serve, but the time has come to move on, and I wish you all well.

I have one remaining message for my party: please stay wedded to the centre ground when fighting general elections. I am an old-fashioned, one nation Tory, and compassionate conservatism is the way forward. I do not want us to wander off to the right—I do not think we are going to—because we must stay centred. Delivering economic efficiency, strong finances, robust economies and all the rest of it is not an end in itself; it is a means to help the less fortunate in society, and we have to remain wedded to that idea. The Prime Minister understands this, and I wish him well at the next general election.