A Green Industrial Revolution

Mark Fletcher Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mark Fletcher (Bolsover) (Con)]

It is an incredible honour to speak in this Chamber for the first time as the Member of Parliament for Bolsover. It is a particular honour to do so with you in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I went to school in your constituency.

I start by thanking all the House staff and authorities who have been so welcoming to us newbies as we continually get lost.

The guidance produced by the Library suggests that we should start our maiden speech with a tribute to our predecessor. I feel there was a missing paragraph telling us what to do when our predecessor is a giant of British politics.

Dennis Skinner became a Member of Parliament in 1970, and he served the great people of Bolsover for 49 years. He fought tirelessly for his constituents locally, and it was incredibly heartening to hear during the campaign, on street after street and doorstep after doorstep, of the work he had done to help people.

Dennis became known nationally for his uncompromising contributions in this Chamber and for his heckling before the Queen’s Speech. Feared, admired and respected, Dennis Skinner is synonymous both with this House and with the constituency I now represent. It would only be fair and a great tribute if we could arrange for a statue of Dennis to be built in the constituency to honour his service and to inspire the next generation in Bolsover that they, too, can help to shape the world.

I would very much welcome support for this proposal from both the Opposition Front Bench and the Government. I even suggest that Scottish National party Members may wish to support it, given they finally have the Bench space that they so long desired.

The Leader of the Opposition has already paid tribute to his fallen comrade, my predecessor, in the House, and I suspect he is better placed to do so than I am, other than to say that Dennis is, was and always will be the Beast of Bolsover.

The wonderful people of Bolsover have very discerning tastes—or at least they did until 12 December—and I am only the third Member of Parliament to serve the constituency since its creation in 1950. Both my predecessors made their maiden contributions in this House on the topic of the coal industry, and I wanted to continue in that vein with today’s speech on the green industrial revolution.

Bolsover is proud of its mining past—its geography, communities and landscape were moulded by that once great industry—but we know that mining is not our future, and Bolsover is one of those post-mining communities where potential is plentiful but not entirely unleashed. The challenge of becoming the first major economy to become carbon neutral by 2050 is one we should relish, where we look to our science and research sectors to find new solutions and innovations. We should be optimistic about our future, as a leading economy and as a country that is well placed to develop and build green technologies, and about our ability to meet the climate challenge head on. But we must also ensure that, in that challenge, no community is left behind.

I can see what you are thinking, Madam Deputy Speaker. The weather outside is not so great, there are still dozens of maiden speeches to go, recess is only a few weeks away and mentally you are flicking through the travel brochures. The beaches of the Bahamas, Bali and Barbados are calling, but may I make a suggestion that is equally, if not more, splendid—Bolsover? Its tremendous tourism trade is beginning to thrive, and you will meet the friendliest constituents in the country. You can visit our 17th century castle or make your way to Hardwick Hall, an Elizabethan masterpiece. You can start your journey by rail, in the picturesque village of Whitwell, travel through Creswell and see the Creswell crags, and move on to the powerhouse that is Shirebrook, a town of many achievements and from where the mighty Jason Statham originates.

If you insist on driving through the most magnificent constituency in the country, you will be pleased to find that the M1 snakes its way through Bolsover, although I should warn you that we are the beneficiaries of a so-called “smart” motorway on that stretch. You can start in the village of Barlborough, pop into Dobbies for a cup of tea and perhaps visit the council offices in nearby Clowne, and then head to junction 29A, where you will find Markham Vale, the very best place in the country to set up a business if you require good transport links. If you make your way a little further south, you can head to Pinxton, which is famous for its porcelain, and do a spot of shopping at the McArthur Glen outlet. I should say that nearby are the headquarters of a famous business, Slimming World, but it seems not to have written to its new MP—perhaps it knows a lost cause when it sees one!

The largest part of my constituency is just next to Pinxton: the mighty South Normanton. My first engagement in my new role as the Member of Parliament was at the South Normanton Community Church, where they debuted a new production, based on the pop lyrics of a P!nk song, called “What About Us?”. It spoke of the challenge we face in this House: ensuring that communities in the midlands and the north that have felt overlooked and undervalued for too long feel as though politics is as much about them as it is about the City of London and big business; as though we are as interested in delivering jobs, opportunities, transport upgrades and broadband connectivity in post-mining communities as we are elsewhere; and as though we care about tackling antisocial behaviour and ensuring that our national health service remains a cherished institution. It is a challenge that I believe the new Members on these Benches will relish.

I omitted one part of my constituency, Madam Deputy Speaker—or, in political language, I saved the best for last. If you make your way through Blackwell or Tibshelf, you will find four wards on loan from North East Derbyshire District Council that are also in my constituency: Holmewood and Heath, Pilsley and Morton, Shirland, and Sutton are certainly where you should finish your visit. I recommend a visit to the beautiful village of Woolley Moor, or if you are feeling particularly active you can make your way along the Five Pits trail.

If I may finish on a personal note, today and 12 December were both bittersweet days for me: I am indescribably honoured that the people of Bolsover thought that an openly gay, Cambridge-educated lad from Donny was the obvious successor to Dennis Skinner, but I am also drawn to thinking about my mum, who passed away in a tragic accident when I was 17. At that time, I lived on my own and felt like my world was falling apart. I miss her tremendously and wish she was here today.

As I sat on these Benches yesterday, listening to a number of maiden speeches by my colleagues that were considerably better than my own—[Hon. Members: “No!”]—I was struck by how many of the new intake have overcome tragedy, adverse circumstances, disabilities or a difficult upbringing. So many of us have found ourselves, at one stage or another, the underdog in life. Equally, I was struck by how that motivated us to want to make a difference—to help other people when they need it most—and, perhaps most importantly, how we all remembered those who helped us in our moment of need.

I listened yesterday to hon. Members pay tribute to the teachers who helped them and inspired them to reach these Benches. In my own case, I would like to thank the amazing teachers at Danum School Technology College, like Dave Irons and Val Cusworth, and so many others who treated me like I was their family and made me feel a little less lost.

This is an intake that I am incredibly proud to be a part of, because so many of us overcame difficulties and know how lucky we are, and how things might have been so different for us. Our mission, in the privileged positions that we now hold, is to make our world a little less reliant on lucky interventions and ensure that this Conservative Government give working-class kids the best possible start in life.