Economic Affairs and Work and Pensions

Mark Pawsey Excerpts

Tuesday 8th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

It gives me great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie) and to be able to speak for the first time in this Chamber as the Member for the new seat of Rugby. I often have to explain to people that I represent a town, rather than a sport. As an enthusiastic former player, it seems appropriate to have joined today the all-party rugby union group. Rugby is unique as the only place to have given its name to an international sport. It already receives many overseas visitors, particularly from rugby-playing countries, who make their way to the close at Rugby school, where William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran. Much work has already taken place in the town to capitalise on our association with the game, and I look forward to a new visitor attraction in time for the 2015 world cup.

The seat of Rugby includes villages to the north and west of the town, including Binley Woods, where I grew up and attended primary school. It has since become famous as the location of Hyacinth Bucket’s bungalow in the sitcom “One Foot in the Grave”. The constituency also includes the village of Bulkington, which was familiar to the author George Eliot, who referred to it as Raveloe in her book, “Silas Marner”.

I should like to pay tribute to my hon. Friend the immediate past Member for Rugby, who is at my side and has been returned as the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy Wright). Having made a very big impact here in his first term, he has now taken the sensible option of a safe seat.

Previous Members include Andy King and, before that, someone well known to me, since that person is my father—James Pawsey, who was first elected for Rugby in 1979. I know that it is not unusual for a son or a daughter to follow their father here, and there are many examples in the current intake. I join my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker), who spoke just before me, as a son following a father into the same seat. My father still has an excellent reputation in Rugby as a hard-working constituency MP. Throughout the time that I was seeking to be elected, many potential constituents spoke to me about how much he has done for the people of Rugby. I have heard many similar tributes from people here since I arrived—colleagues and staff who remember his contributions, particularly in the field of education. Like my hon. Friend, I feel that I have a very tough act to follow.

I am a product of Rugby’s grammar school, which was founded by a locally born grocer, Lawrence Sheriff, who, when he established Rugby school, set aside a sum of money for the education of boys from the town. From an intake of 90 boys at that school in 1968, two of us sit here today; my former school friend and now my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (David Mowat), was also elected in May.

Rugby changed significantly in the 19th century with the coming of the railways, and our station is familiar to many; it is on the west coast line, with a journey time to London Euston of just 50 minutes. In Rugby, we welcome the Government’s commitment to new high-speed rail lines but are anxious to ensure that fast services will remain on the original network once the new lines are in use. Indeed, Rugby’s transport links are the most important feature of our town. Rugby is at the heart of the UK’s motorway network. That makes Rugby an attractive location for business in general, and for freight and logistics businesses in particular. Despite the current pressure on the public finances, we believe that it is vital to continue true investment in our network in order to continue to improve it.

Rugby has also had an impact in the field of communications through the Rugby radio site, the masts of which have for many years been visible from the M1. Almost all those masts have now been removed in preparation for a massive housing development, which will be the most important issue facing the town over the next 20 years.

Rugby has experienced major growth before. In the early 1900s, heavy engineering came into our town and Rugby became a major industrial centre. We have a history of producing gas and steam turbines at a company known as British Thomson-Houston, which went on to become GEC and AEI—now amalgamated to form Alstom, a leader in power generation. Rugby is also home to Converteam, a worldwide specialist in power conversion that is building electric engines for the new Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers. Rugby had a pioneering role in other forms of propulsion. In 1937, Frank Whittle built the world’s first prototype jet engine in Rugby. I have a personal connection with Whittle’s work, because I established a small business in Rugby in a rented unit adjacent to where Whittle carried out his work.

I have spent 25 years starting, running, managing and building up a business, and I have a good understanding of the challenges that businesses face. We need to recognise more effectively those who create wealth and jobs. Small business is ready to make its contribution, but it needs a work force with the skills and the attitude to roll up their sleeves and play their part. Too often, regrettably, there is insufficient incentive for jobseekers to do that, and I welcome the changes in our welfare system that will put incentives to work firmly back in place. I make no apology for putting the case for manufacturing and for business, particularly small business, and I look forward to doing so in the House over the coming years, in addition to representing all the electors of Rugby, with whom I believe I have a special bond.