Income tax (charge)

Mark Logan Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in this most important of debates on the Budget, especially as it regards levelling up. I congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Ian Byrne) on his maiden speech.

Quite a few of us on the Government Benches stand up and, before opening our mouths, have great visions of sounding thoroughly Churchillian. But with as strong a Boltonian accent as mine, I will not be trying too hard to imitate Churchill today. [Laughter.] This is the greenest of days: St Patrick’s Day. For many an evening, I looked out on to the falling sun on Mount Slemish in my birthplace of Ballymena, the home of St Patrick.

Indeed, these Benches are green, a colour evoking camouflage—a colour that is restful, harmonious and self-effacing, and a colour of modesty and humility. I got that from Parliament’s intranet, in the hope of sounding cultured. You see, Madam Deputy Speaker, the people of Bolton North East are a self-effacing and very humble people who none the less have a proud history, producing some of the greats like Bolton-educated Sir Ian McKellen, and home to the magnificent Hall i’ th’ Wood Museum and the historic St Maxentius church in Bradshaw.

My predecessor, Sir David Crausby, was elected in 1997, and he has many admirers in both Bolton and Westminster. Sir David led on many campaigns, including to help save Bolton’s fire stations and, over many years, being a voice for improving railway services for the town. I know that the House will join me in wishing Sir David and his family all the best.

Despite being thrown into a global crisis at the beginning of 2020, I believe that, as a nation, we must aspire to pull through together. It was aspiration in the midst of the post-world war crisis that led the United Kingdom to found the NHS—an aspiration that we have the breadth of shoulders to shoulder every one of our fellow countrymen in time of need. This virus is causing a global crisis, yet I can feel that aspiration in every one of my fellow Members, irrespective of which side of the House they sit on. I, you, we represent our 66 million people’s united aspiration for security, prosperity, quality of life and a dynamic, exciting future. For that is why we are here. This is why Parliament exists.

When I think of aspiration, I recall the aspiration of the young lad at Eden Boys’ School in Halliwell to become head boy and lead his fellow students into a new digital age. I think of the aspiration of a group of early-20s fellas, yearning for more from a society that they felt had let them down and branded them as useless—yet few more stimulating conversations was I part of during the winter campaign. You, the young people in Tonge with the Haulgh, can help build our future.

I have been deeply impressed by the aspiration of Sharples School in Astley Bridge, which goes by the motto “Learn, dream, achieve”, and St Catherine’s Academy in Breightmet, who impressed on me, “We aren’t just teaching kids; we are bettering our local community.”

The collective aspiration of the people of Bolton North East is manifested in our ambitious town regeneration vision—not so much a project, but a blueprint for the future of the UK’s largest town. It is spearheaded by the leader of Bolton Council, who represents Bromley Cross and who I personally thank, along with my local association, for taking a punt on me. I was glad to enjoy the luck of St Patrick in winning the election by an almighty 378 votes! I aspire to work hard to make our vision of a regenerated, prosperous town, and the required Metrolink from Bolton to Manchester, a reality.

You see, Madam Deputy Speaker, Bolton North East was once the epicentre of the textile revolution. Samuel Crompton was born in what is known today as Crompton ward. As the British inventor of the spinning mule, which permitted large-scale manufacture of high-quality thread and yarn, he had a decisive impact on the British—and, by extension, the world—economy. Where, might you ask, is my connection to the land of the spinning mule? Well, I was at one time the spinning mule of the Foreign Office in east China, serving as chief spokesman at the British consulate in Shanghai, and spinning the yarns of the coalition Government to help build relationships with an emerging superpower. For an extended period of time, I had a front row seat in the story of the 21st century: the re-emergence of China and of the Asian region more broadly, or in Chinese—if I am permitted—wo cengjing qinyan kandao zhongguo de jueqi.

I encourage ambition, entrepreneurship and innovation in my own country. I believe in Britain, and I believe we can benefit from the rise of Asia through trade and partnerships. Bolton’s fortunes, much like the ebbs and flows of international relations, experienced one of their first highs with the advent of the spinning mule, but once we get through this current ebb, another high point is beckoning.

This Government are committed to levelling up, and Bolton is once again the epicentre of this. You see, Madam Deputy Speaker, we are a creative people, curious and always finding new ways of overcoming old problems. For example, the Radic8 company in my constituency is using innovative technology designed specifically for protecting people with weak or compromised immune systems against airborne viruses.

Often, Bolton North East’s businesses have a special feature: you pay a few pounds, and then you add a few pounds to your waistline. There is Shahi Bakers on Blackburn Road, an area of much diversity, where I almost ate myself into oblivion on Friday past—it was that good—or like the week before, when I nibbled on a pizza flavour traditional pie at Empieor. Both of these small businesses are brand-new in Bolton, and even though I did not spend a single pound in either—the freebies of being an MP—the owner of the pie shop was ecstatic that the Chancellor spent a few quid in last week’s Budget.

It would be remiss of me to skip arguably Bolton North East’s most successful export, Warburtons bakery, which once featured Sylvester Stallone in an advert. I never thought I would be quoting Rocky Balboa and “Eye of the Tiger” in Parliament today:

“Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past

You must fight just to keep them alive”.

Metaphorically, we must fight to keep our Union alive—our united aspiration.

Our institutions have taken a bit of a battering of late, yet it has also been in times of adversity that our most integral of institutions, the Union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has shone. You see, Madam Deputy Speaker, I spoke earlier of looking out on to St Patrick’s Slemish mountain, but only a few miles east over the glens of Antrim, I looked in awe, many a time, across the Irish sea at western Scotland towards the mull of Kintyre. At our closest point, it is only 12 miles away, and I say build that bridge! I say that in the spirit of aspiration, similar to my belief that we can lead the world in science, and I welcome the Chancellor’s increased spending for science and innovation in the Budget equalling £22 billion. We can continue to be a real success story that others look to with admiration and a desire to emulate.

I am incredibly honoured and excited to represent the hard-working people of Bolton North East. Even though I am not necessarily Bolton-born, you could say I am “Bolton bread”—and that at the very least, for the future of Bolton North East and our Union of united aspiration, it is time for me to earn more than just my mere crust.