General Election

Mark Ferguson Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mark Ferguson (Gateshead Central and Whickham) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. This has been an interesting debate so far. Like other hon. Members, I thank the people who came up with the petition and those who signed it, but ultimately I believe that it is based on a false premise: the idea that economic growth can be kick-started within a single quarter of a new Government after 14 years of a previous Government.

Labour Members always talk about 14 years, although the Conservatives—and, I dare say, some Lib Dems—do not want to hear it, but in places such as my constituency it has not been just 14 years. The global financial crisis was in 2008, so it has actually been 16 years, two of which were regrettably under a Labour Government. In 2007—a year before that—people in my community in the north-east were queuing up on Northumberland Street in Newcastle to take cash out of cashpoints because Northern Rock was going bust. Our economy has not been functioning in the way that people in this country would expect for the best part of two decades, and the idea that we can turn around 17-plus years of failure in less than 17 weeks is, I am afraid, for the birds.

I am not surprised that we are discussing this petition—there is clearly a great well of discontent—but it was cheered on by politicians, some of whom are on the Opposition Benches today, who lost a free and fair election fair and square, and it was then amplified by a foreign billionaire. I know that hon. Members do not want to hear about foreign interference, but it is a fact that he used his platform and his algorithm to exacerbate this petition to the point that we are here today.

I am not surprised that just over 4,000 people in my constituency of Gateshead Central and Whickham signed this petition, but 18,000-plus people voted for me and the Labour party on 4 July, just over six months ago. I will not allow what effectively amounts to an online vote exacerbated by Twitter to overrule the votes of more than 18,000 people and everyone else who took part in that election on the basis of nothing more than that. We had a free and fair election in this country, in which every eligible adult was allowed to take part and those who wanted to vote voted. The result was a majority for the Labour party and that is the way we are going to govern. We are going to govern for the majority of people in this country, whether they voted for us or not.

I know what I am meant to say. Hon. Members on the other side of the debate will say that Labour has misled people and broken promises, so I am meant to play my part by reeling off the litany of promises broken by the previous Government. But I am not going to do that. [Interruption.] No, there is a serious point to be made here: in British politics, the standard used to be that we might disagree with each other, but we would make our points and the other side would agree or disagree on that basis.

I am sad to say that that is not how British politics works now. Now, those on one side make their arguments and those on the other side sow distrust in those arguments. They say that we are all liars, so if we are all liars, I am a liar. But if they say that I am a liar, they say that you are liar. They say that we are all liars and that on that basis, “No one should trust any of them.” Well, I will not play that game, because I believe that the vast majority of Members of Parliament are honourable and respectful people.

I will not accept the lie that Members of Parliament are disconnected from their communities. In my six months as a Member of Parliament, I have never felt more connected with my community; I have never spoken to more of my neighbours; and I have never been more engaged with the business of politics and the business of my community. I believe that that is the same for all hon. Members, regardless of party, on both sides of the House. I have great disagreements with many hon. Members who have spoken in the debate, but I will not play the game of sowing distrust, because ultimately that damages our democracy, our politics and the British people.

Instead, I will talk about the promises that Labour has kept, such as the new deal for working people that will make a radical change to the rights of working people in this country, including my constituents in Gateshead Central and Whickham; the changes being made on energy so that we become an energy-independent country; and the planning reforms and house building policies that will mean that my son, and indeed all our children and grandchildren, will have the homes they need to live in. I will also mention the measures to bring the railways back into public ownership, so that they once again function for our benefit, and our Budget, which invested in public services rather than cutting them.

Hon. Members may disagree with that, but they should not use it to sow distrust. Let us have political arguments in this country, because the way that we do things at the moment is not who we are. This is not the way we do things and this is not what a good democracy looks like. Let us be better.