Education and Opportunity

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Darren Paffey

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I begin by congratulating you and wishing you well as you take the Chair? I also congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on her new position. People in my constituency—parents, teachers, pupils and professionals alike—will be heartened by the vision she set out for how this Labour Government will build opportunity once again.

As I stand here as a new MP—I have to keep saying it to believe it—I want to thank the people of Southampton Itchen for the incredible privilege that they have given me. In fact, this feels like a moment heavy with lots of privileges. One is the privilege to be in the Chamber as many of my colleagues make their maiden speeches, and I congratulate them in advance on the excellent speeches we are going to hear this afternoon. Another privilege is to be one of only three Darrens ever elected to this place. Since the summoning of the first Parliament over 750 years ago, there had been no MPs called Darren, but, like buses, three of us have turned up in the last few years.

The biggest privilege of all is to make my very first speech as the Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen in this debate about education and opportunity, because, like my right hon. Friend, that is my story. As a former university lecturer married to a secondary school teacher, with children in secondary school, primary school and preschool, I feel like I have some skin in this game. None of the privileges that I feel at the moment is anyone’s birthright; they are privileges for which I and many other people—my team and activists—have worked very hard, so I do not take them for granted.

In addition to being part of the small crack squad of Darrens, I find myself in an equally small cohort of only a few MPs known to have grown up in foster care and to have been adopted. The public services that we are talking about today, and that this Government will rebuild, are the services that made me who I am—the NHS staff, the social workers and the inspiring teachers.

When I was made cabinet member for children’s services in Southampton, it felt like life had come full circle, and it really did so again just a few weeks ago during the campaign when Peter, who was the social worker for the first 10 years of my life, got in touch to wish me well. It was excellent to hear that he is a lifelong Labour supporter. As a cabinet member, I worked to get better support for our care-experienced young people, because too many do not get the start they deserve or the help they need, and we must do more to fight for them. I look forward to working with, among others, my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister), who has done excellent work on the need to review social care. I know that he will continue to be a great champion for care-experienced children.

In the Gracious Speech, His Majesty set out the Labour Government’s mission to

“break down barriers to opportunity”

and to “promote children’s wellbeing”. The Secretary of State has said:

“I will help working-class children defy the odds to succeed—just as I did.”

As someone who grew up as a working-class foster kid, I will do everything I can to back that mission, especially for my constituents. If I achieve just one thing as an MP—obviously, I intend to work hard and achieve more than that—I hope it will be to say to those whose backgrounds look anything like mine, “Let those challenging times and that stigma that often comes with social care never ever hold you back, but instead forge in yourself a steely determination to achieve your fullest potential.” I would not be here without some measure of that. I certainly would not be here without my wonderful wife, children and siblings, who have supported and often tolerated my journey to Parliament, or my parents, who are no longer with us to share this moment, but whom I thank for the values they instilled in me and the opportunities they provided me with in life.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Royston Smith. Before he was an MP, Royston was the Conservative leader of Southampton city council, and it was as council leader that he visited HMS Astute when it was in port. A dreadful and fatal gun attack broke out, and Royston showed enormous bravery by tackling and disarming the gunman, preventing further bloodshed. For this, he was rightly awarded the George Medal by Her late Majesty. Royston fought in Parliament for those constituents affected by the cladding scandal over the years, and I hope to carry on his important work. Party politics aside, I was touched to receive a gracious letter from him, congratulating me and offering some wise words of advice. I think that that is a measure of the man.

There is another accolade for Royston, as he was only the second Conservative to beat Labour in Southampton Itchen since the wars. He succeeded the right hon. John Denham, my Labour predecessor, who served our city for 23 years and attained high office in Cabinet. John has been a role model, mentor and friend to me.

Turning to my wonderful constituency, it sits on the near-tropical south coast of England. The River Itchen, which gives my constituency its name, has shaped our landscape and communities since the establishment of Saxon Hamwic and Roman Clausentum. We are a port city and the cruise capital of northern Europe, but we are also a bustling hub of culture, commerce, and maritime heritage. From the medieval Bargate and city walls to the groundbreaking Ocean Infinity, Starling bank, and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton is a place where history and innovation walk hand in hand. We are an outward-looking city; we are the gateway to the world, as we have often been called. The pilgrim fathers sailed from Southampton, as did our brave D-day troops. Spitfires and military ships were manufactured on the shores of the Itchen in Woolston.

We have two world-leading and civic-focused universities, and marine and green tech enterprises abound. Southampton is a place where public servants and labourers, stevedores and students, entrepreneurs and artists all contribute to the rich mosaic of daily life. Our people are resilient, diverse, welcoming and warm. Our city faces challenges, like many others, including health inequalities, and child poverty levels are far too high. Many compare us demographically to a large northern seat, but one that happens to be in the south. We are also a microcosm of the country’s broader ambitions and a beacon of the potential still to be unleashed. Indeed, our vision is to be a city of opportunity.

We are a premier league football city, after a short interlude in the championship, and I congratulate the team on winning promotion in May. When the Saints went marching in to Wembley to win the play-offs, I was proud to be in that number watching their victory. Commiserations to any Leeds fans in the Chamber. It was fantastic to see the Leader of the Opposition, a fellow Saints fan, also in that number, cheering on a victory for the red team—something that keeps happening this year.

In closing, I return to my starting point. It is a phenomenal privilege to be here. Many see this Chamber from the outside and think of combative Punch and Judy politics, but as I join these Benches, I look over at the plaque remembering our colleague Jo Cox and recall her words that

“we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.”—[Official Report, 3 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 675.]

To every constituent, whether they voted for me or not, Jo’s inspiring words are the spirit in which I intend to work hard for them, together with colleagues across the House, for as long as I enjoy the privilege to serve.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Ghani)]

As a former maritime Minister, I visited tropical Southampton Itchen very often. I call Sarah Dyke.