Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

Zubir Ahmed Excerpts

Friday 26th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dr Zubir Ahmed (Glasgow South West) (Lab)]

I congratulate you on your election, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I congratulate hon. Members on discharging their responsibilities and delivering their maiden speeches, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton)—I am sure he will correct my pronunciation and give me some honest feedback. I also welcome the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), to the Front Bench. It is timely that I am making my maiden speech on a day when we are discussing how Scotland might shape the energy needs of these islands for many decades to come.

I thank and pay tribute to my predecessor, Chris Stephens, for his dedicated service to our community over the last nine years. His commitment to social justice and workers’ rights is inspirational and will leave a lasting impact. I am particularly thankful for his advice and counsel during the handover process that is currently taking place.

Glasgow South West is a synthesis of many different communities, each with recurring contributions to the 850-year-old second city of empire. If you will allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will give the House a short synopsis of the place where I live, work and play.

We start in Darnley, Deaconsbank and Pollok, much of it occupying the old Pollok estate, the laird of which —Sir John Stirling-Maxwell—was a Member of this place and founded the National Trust for Scotland in 1931. In more recent times, these areas have demonstrated the transformative possibilities of their co-operative spirit through the Rosehill housing co-operative and the Pollok credit union.

Moving north, the ruins of Crookston castle come into view. Built by the Stewarts of Darnley in the 1400s, it is the only medieval castle standing in Glasgow, and it is possibly where Mary, Queen of Scots, was betrothed to Lord Darnley. It remains an underutilised community asset, but I commend the friends of Crookston castle for their efforts to bring this space back into the service of the people of Glasgow.

A short distance from the castle, the wonderful communities of Mosspark, Dumbreck and Cardonald are nestled around the great expanse of Bellahouston Park, which has played host to numerous music concerts, papal visits and the empire exhibition of 1938.

As we head further north, we come to Ibrox, which is synonymous with Rangers football club. Now, I must stress, Madam Deputy Speaker, that other Glasgow football clubs are available; my hon. Friends the Members for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) and for Glasgow East (John Grady) can take you for a tour around them. Govan is the birthplace of Sir Alex Ferguson, a footballing legend, but also a friend to Members on the Labour Benches; he has often given wise counsel to my party. It is also the location of the Queen Elizabeth university hospital, formerly known as the Southern General, one of Britain’s largest hospitals and the place where I honed my skills in surgery and practice as a transplant surgeon. My research leads me to conclude that I am the first transplant surgeon to be elected to this place.

Govan’s shipyard history is, of course, world famous, and the Fairfield Heritage Trust and Govan Workspace have brought that to life. More importantly, it continues to serve the defence of our realm even in the modern day, and to be part of Glasgow South West’s story; we have BAE Systems and Thales, alongside fintech and medtech companies such as Barclays and Cohesion Medical, as well as award-winning TV and film companies such as Firecrest Films. We can see the kind of high-quality jobs of the future that can be available to local people. These are the kinds of jobs I want to grow as part of this Labour Government.

As we head towards the edge of the constituency, we find the BBC Scotland headquarters. The BBC has an important function in the fabric of our national life, not only in informing, educating and entertaining, but as a beacon of our soft power on the world stage—something I wholeheartedly support. Just as national broadcasting is important, so is the local, and nothing encapsulates that better in Glasgow South West than Sunny Govan radio station. It provides an eclectic mix of music, but also, more importantly, runs sobering stories and is a source of comfort on some of the challenges in our community.

We end our Glasgow South West journey in Pollokshields, an area my hon. Friend the Member for Brent West (Barry Gardiner) knows well. It is a true melting pot of cultures and ideas, and the place where my father’s one-month road journey from Pakistan ended in April 1963. He would go on to drive buses in the city, and then black cabs—he is in his 80s and he still does.

In the undergrowth of this rich history and potential, however, there are some worrying signals. There is the weariness of working ever faster and longer just to stay still, the anxiety of wondering how secure that work is, and the trepidation at the end of a day of work that you may not be able to pay for the odd treat that makes life worthwhile, or even the essentials. It is against that backdrop that we on the Labour Benches were sent to this place to make the economy work for working people, and to restore the intergenerational covenant —the promise that the lives of the generations after us will be better in every sense than our own. Politics for me is not, therefore, about the indulgent combative tweet, or even the theatrical amendment. It is the about seeing the world through the long lens. It is about having the stamina for diligent analysis, the patience to articulate policy and then, when in power, the discipline to deliver enduring change. That has always been the Labour way.

Every Member elected to this place recognises electoin for the singular honour that it truly is, but it also takes a village to be elected to this place. That includes, of course, the tireless staff and activists who are in many ways the DNA of our democracy, but there are also, for all of us, those who shaped our life and now shape our politics. When I reflect back, I think of my parents and my extended family, who, from a cradle in a Govanhill tenement, instilled in me the raw ingredients to do my utmost in every walk of life. I think, too, of my teachers and my mentors, who moulded those ingredients into the art and craft of a widely practised surgical career, and of my wife and children, who keep me connected to the earth and in contact with reality, particularly when it is much needed.

Out of all those people, I think of my maternal aunt, Matloob Mohammad, who stands out. She had no children of her own and considered us her children. Like too many in our Labour family, she was taken by glioblastoma—as was my father-in-law, Tony—in 1997. Her patient journey through our NHS inspired me to become a doctor and then a surgeon. She also, in many ways, inspired my political journey. She quite inadvertently introduced me to this place 29 years ago. After queuing outside, we found ourselves in the Strangers’ Gallery watching a combative Leader of the Opposition by the name of Tony Blair taking on the then Prime Minister. If she were here today in that Gallery, she could not fail to notice the changes in the make-up of this Parliament reflected back up at her.

We have our challenges in modern Britain, but it is important to be unashamedly proud of the fact that we are demonstrably the most successfully ethno-religiously diverse legislature in the world. In these volatile times, I believe the world looks to us in this place, the mother of Parliaments, for guidance, and for the solace that democracy can still deliver. I am confident that it will.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call Sarah Bool to make her maiden speech.