Christmas Adjournment

Nick Fletcher Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Nick Fletcher (Don Valley) (Con)]

It has been a difficult year for many and a mixed bag for Doncaster, too. It started so well, with the award of city status and the shortlisting into the final six of 43 applicants to be the headquarters of Great British Railways. There was also levelling-up funding and our becoming an educational investment area.

Yet one event has hit Doncaster extremely hard: the loss of our international airport, Doncaster Sheffield airport. If it remains closed, a public inquiry will be needed as the loss of the strategic and key economic asset for Doncaster’s—indeed, South Yorkshire’s—economy is so damaging. Questions need to be asked. How did this happen? Who allowed it to happen? Why did the South Yorkshire Mayor not invest and make the £20 million loan? Why did our very own Doncaster Mayor not shout up for our airport when that was needed most? Why have Peel been able to do this a second time to our region? So many questions need answers. Only a public inquiry can establish the truth.

The South Yorkshire Mayor said he could not buy the airport as he did not know how to run one; he also does not know how to run the trams. Yet he has top-sliced £110 million from Government funds for the sole benefit of Sheffield, his own city. Doncaster’s share of that is over £24 million. We want our money back. I ask on behalf of the good people of Doncaster for the South Yorkshire Mayor to return to us what is ours: £24 million—not as a gift or early Christmas present, but in recognition that it is our money and not for Sheffield but for Doncaster. If he believes that the tram is an asset for the whole of South Yorkshire, then wonderful. I think our airport is, too. If he does not want to return our £24 million and continues his support for the tram, I will go along with that—but only if Doncaster can have £110 million for its airport, too. I will get the answers that my constituents deserve and press for a fair share of their money.

However, I do not want to dwell entirely on the past in this speech; I want to look forward to what can be a wonderful future. My hopes for 2023 would see an end to the war in Ukraine, inflation down, cost of living crisis at an end and no more strikes—a Minister for men and a men’s health strategy, too. I also hope to see a change in how we as politicians speak to each other. Much as we need to challenge each other—and I do—I hope that the politics of hostility disappear and to see much more of politicians who speak to each other with respect, both in here and on Twitter.

We should show the rest of the country how to be with each other. Hopefully, that will translate down to how we as a nation speak to our police, nurses, teachers and GPs as well as how we all speak to and about each other. That includes how we speak of the west as whole, the UK and our city of Doncaster. We all know that there are many injustices, but speaking badly of where we live and our way of life will never help. I often hear how bad this country is and many parts of the west, too. If it is so bad, why do so many people want to come here? No, we need to start respecting each other and our way of life a little more.

As a very well known author said, we need to start having an attitude of gratitude. We all want things to get better, but just to keep them the way they are takes so much effort. To all who make this country function, I say thank you—whether it is roads to drive down, paths to walk on, fields to play on, schools to go to, hospitals to make us well, energy to keep us warm and keep out the dark, or even the ability to speak freely. To both the public and private sector alike, I say thank you. I believe that we live in the greatest country and I have the great good fortune to live in the greatest city: Doncaster is great.

As I have already mentioned, this year Doncaster became a city and lost an airport, but whether it is a town with an airport or a city without one, I will always love it. I believe it is a fantastic place and can have the best of futures. My hopes for Doncaster’s future include the reopening of our airport, a new hospital, an advanced manufacturing research facility, for Doncaster to be the home of hybrid air vehicles and perhaps even Boeing, plus a second university technical college, levelling up funding and—who knows?— even a revitalised market. James Hart has my full support in his campaign. We need a new school in Bawtry and a new health centre for Rossington, and I will champion them all. Most of all, I want the next generation to say, “I can and I will”, and for them to believe that much is possible where they live, and that all it takes is the right attitude and hard work. I therefore ask every parent in Doncaster to say to their child this Christmas, “Speak up for England, speak up for Doncaster, and speak up for each other.”

Finally, Christian friends across the House tried to secure a Backbench debate on Christmas and Christianity, but by all accounts we were not successful. While I have this moment, I want to remind those in this place, and anyone who cares to watch, that although Christmas is celebrated in many ways across the world, the real reason is the birth of our saviour, Jesus Christ. He was sent as a saviour, and with the promise that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. I do not want anyone ever to forget that. Merry Christmas everybody.