Maiden Speech
House of Commons, 9th September 2024
I made my maiden speech in the House of Commons on 9 September, during a motion on Syria. I tried to pull together the different threads of my life and my beliefs and how and why they had brought me to this place as an MP for Witney.
I paid tribute to my predecessor, Robert Courts for his hard work. And then I paid tribute to the constituency, to its natural beauty and charming towns, settled at the southern end of the Cotswolds, and to its traditions of industry and philanthropy, which have deep roots, going back to the growth of the wool trade in the middle ages.
As I pointed out, the wool trade and the blanket industry may be gone, done for by the invention of the duvet, but those traditions of volunteering and community life that they fostered live on. It is community groups and networks of volunteers that make the constituency tick.
I touched on a number of things I campaigned on—improved transport connectivity through railways, and the need to build more housing around such links; the need to take Thames Water into special administration, and the need to take more secondary healthcare out of Oxford and into Witney.
My own family has strong links to the armed forces and I’m delighted that the constituency has a large miliary presence, with the base at Brize Norton and the Defence Academy at Shrivenham. The forces’ role historically—and still today—has been to stand up for democracy, human rights and the rule of law and that point brought me directly to the motion, which aims to improve the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria without compromising the sanctions in place against the regime. I fully supported this. It was particularly dear to my heart because, as well as having visited Syria, my family has, in recent years, taken in a number of Syrian refugees with whom we remain in close contact. I called for improved ways of integrating refugees into national life.
My final point was about Brexit’s impact on the economy. Brexit was one on the things that pushed me in to politics. I regretted the government’s timid approach to putting things right on this issue and hoped that my party could work constructively with the government to move the UK back towards the single market and the customs union.
And my last words were for the people of the Witney constituency, whom I thanked once again and for whom I promised to ‘do my very best’.