Business of the House

Tom Hunt Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

Department for Work and Pensions Ministers regularly appear at the Dispatch Box. It is a fair set of questions to ask, but I say to the hon. Gentleman that if he has any outstanding cases where he has not received answers after a reasonable length of time and he wishes to contact my office, I will do whatever I can to facilitate speedy answers. I reiterate that as a constituency MP dealing with these child maintenance issues, I have rarely found I have received as satisfactory an answer when dealing with a quango as I get when things are directly controlled by Ministers.

[Tom Hunt (Ipswich) (Con)]

This week, the National Trust produced its “Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery”, in which it listed 93 properties for which it is responsible that have links to slavery and colonialism. One of the properties listed is Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s former home, and that has caused great anger to many of my constituents, who see that Winston Churchill was arguably the greatest Briton who ever was. Will my right hon. Friend find Government time for us to debate Churchill’s legacy, the man he was, how we should be proud of him, and how we should push back on the left’s attempts and determination to denigrate his past? Will my right hon. Friend also take into account the concerns that many of us have about many of our once-loved and currently loved national organisations being increasingly influenced and taken over by woke-ist elements?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My hon. Friend is absolutely spot on. We should be so proud of our great heroes in this nation, like Winston Churchill. An organisation like the National Trust should be honoured that it has Chartwell among its portfolio of properties, and it should remember that its properties were given to it by people who expected it to be a custodian of our history, to be proud of our history and to think well of our great nation, not to shamefacedly, quietly hide away, pretending that it is abashed about the greatness that this country has enjoyed over so many centuries. It is sad that a once great organisation—a membership organisation that owes a duty to its members, many of whom I hear are now resigning in protest—cannot realise how wonderful a man like Churchill was. He is not alone; I could give a list of the great figures of our past, but, Mr Speaker, you want me to be brief.