Yorkshire (Tour de France)

Julian Sturdy Excerpts

Tuesday 18th December 2012 Westminster Hall

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to have secured this debate under your chairmanship, Mr Gray, particularly with your strong links to north Yorkshire and my constituency.

Without doubt, 2012 has been one of the greatest years in British sport. We have hosted the Olympic games in London. Our Olympians achieved the best medal haul since 1908—65 medals, including 29 golds. Super Saturday, 4 August, was undoubtedly Britain’s best athletics night. My noble Friend Lord Coe described it as “the greatest day” of sport that he had ever witnessed. It was a great Olympics for Britain and a great Olympics for Yorkshire, as we romped home with the largest number of medals for the UK.

Andy Murray has become the first British man since 1936 to win a grand slam. In golf, there was Europe’s nail-biting Ryder cup win, and Rory McIlroy has had another incredible year. There are many examples of success from across our country and our sports. Most importantly, the 2012 Paralympics were declared the greatest ever. They have had a massive impact on the perception of disabilities in athletics and in our society more generally. This has been a golden year of sport: it has produced not only brilliant results, but Olympic heroes who are inspiring people, young and old, to take part in sport and engage in exercise, which is the best way to stay fit and live longer.

The games have also shown that Britain is second to none in hosting and running great sporting events. Sport opens doors—it did so for me as a junior squash international, and it has done so for Britain this year. It has been the most incredible advert for our nation, character, values, companies and spirit. The Minister was one of the few people who were behind the most incredible games in history. I pay tribute to the work that he has done to ensure that the year 2012 will never be forgotten in world sporting history.

Of all the sporting achievements during this amazing year, cycling success stands out. I am told that the atmosphere in the velodrome was electric, although I could get tickets only for Greco-Roman wrestling. The roll-call of success could go on and on—Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Laura Trott, to name but three, and of course the man who won the BBC sports personality of the year on Sunday, Bradley Wiggins. He received almost half a million votes, which again shows the popularity of cycling. It was a fitting end to 2012, during which he became the first Briton to win the Tour de France and his fourth Olympic gold. His success has inspired many to get on their bikes. Cycling is well and truly riding high: on the eve of the new year, Britain is at the top of its sporting game and is riding high on a sea of lactic acid and adrenaline.

Against that backdrop, we have had the most incredible news from Yorkshire. Last week, it was announced that the grand départ of the Tour de France, the world’s largest annual sporting event, will come to the north of England for the first time. The tour will wend and weave its way across Yorkshire on 5 and 6 July 2014, before coming to London and going on to France. It has been the most monumental achievement to win this event. Welcome to Yorkshire, the region’s tourism body, began working on a bid to host the tour, in partnership with Leeds city council, in 2011. The bid had fierce competition from Scotland, Barcelona, Germany, Utrecht and Florence. Yorkshire has had high-profile support from Mark Cavendish, Team Sky’s Ben Swift and Olympic gold medallist Ed Clancy, as well as three key historic Yorkshire riders—Malcolm Elliott, Brian Robinson and Barry Hoban.

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

On Mark Cavendish’s support for Yorkshire’s bid, does my hon. Friend agree with his comment that Yorkshire

“is one of the most beautiful parts of not just England but the world”?

[Julian Smith]

I of course agree with my hon. Friend, and I hope to describe that beauty in my speech.

--- Later in debate ---

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to take part in the debate under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith) on securing it. I feel something of an intruder, as a Lincolnshire yellow belly, although my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy), who has one foot in Lincolnshire, has also come along to the debate.

On being elected to the House, I never anticipated that I would make a speech in favour of the Tour de France passing through Lincolnshire, so this is somewhat bizarre. The ideal route to get out of Yorkshire, should any of my colleagues wish to do so, is over the Humber bridge. That iconic construction would make a fantastic advert for the civil engineering skills of British industry.

My hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon mentioned that good things come out of Yorkshire, and I have to admit that that is occasionally true, as my wife is from Sheffield. In fact, she comes from a cycling family, and our recent research into our family history indicates that a great or a great-great-uncle—we are still working on it—cycled in the Olympics in the early 1920s, so there is a family connection to cycling.

As I mentioned, the ideal route for those heading south after the delights of the Yorkshire countryside would pass over the Humber bridge. It would then head to the winner of Britain in Bloom, and the east coast’s premier resort, Cleethorpes. From there, the beauty of the Lincolnshire wolds opens up—an area of outstanding natural beauty with magnificent landscapes. The route would then head towards the county town of Lincoln, with its magnificent cathedral high on the hill—it is perhaps even greater, dare I suggest, than York minster.

[Julian Sturdy]

I, like my hon. Friend, will make the case for my area. York is a great, historic city, and York minster will make an amazing backdrop for one of the stages of the Tour de France. However, the important thing across the region is not where the stages will be held, but the economic benefit to the north of England and, dare I say it, the country. Even Lancashire might benefit slightly—[Hon. Members: “Oh.”] I say that with a bit of trepidation. However, the important point is the economic benefit the Tour will bring across the region and the country, and I urge everyone, including the Government, to back it.

[Martin Vickers]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s intervention. He knows the glories of Cleethorpes, having travelled there only a few months ago in support of my local party, so he can testify to the town’s magnificence. He is quite right to draw attention to the fact that the Tour is a great opportunity to boost our local economies, and I urge all the agencies—tourism boards, local authorities and local enterprise partnerships—to get together and to work closely with the Government and sporting organisations. This is a tremendous opportunity to give a much needed boost to some areas of northern England.

If we can pull this off and get the tour to pass not only through the great county of Yorkshire, but down into Lincolnshire, that will again emphasise the closeness of their links. I urge the Government to co-ordinate every possible agency to work on that so that we can benefit the whole economy.