Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make this speech today. It is an important day in our history.
I am told that one of the few pleasures—perhaps the only pleasure—in making a maiden speech is that it affords you the opportunity to thank your predecessor. It is none the less daunting for someone who has sat in this House for only a number of weeks to attempt to review the long career of Sir Patrick McLoughlin, who spent 33 years in this place, 30 of them on the Front Benches. Sir Patrick is much loved in the constituency. He assiduously balanced working hard on his constituents’ behalf with serving as a constant figure nationally. I am very grateful to him personally both for going out of his way to help me settle into the constituency and for coming out on the campaign with me so often during the general election. He left big shoes—or, in the case of Derbyshire and the rain of December, big wellington boots—to fill.
In the course of my research, I had the chance to read “Chance Witness”, the memoirs of another of my distinguished predecessors, Matthew Parris. I strongly recommend it to all Members of this House, particularly new Members. He made several observations about the place. The book provides salient lessons for a life in politics, not the least of which is about the dangers of assumption. While a Member, Matthew Parris courageously argued for the reform of sexual offences legislation, calling, for example, for the abolition of the penalty of imprisonment for the crime of prostitution. As part of his campaign, he invited a coachload of prostitutes to address a relevant Select Committee. At the appointed time, he entered Central Lobby to meet his guests. He cast his eye over those present and went up to a promising group of women and asked, “Are you the prostitutes from Birmingham?” There followed, as he described, “an awful silence”. “No,” came back the response. They were, in fact, a west midlands Catholic women’s group. [Laughter.]
It is a very great privilege to be standing here as the hon. Member for the Derbyshire Dales and the first woman Member to boot. It is a large constituency of outstanding beauty: 377 square miles in size, most of which stands within the Peak District national park. It is bigger than several vocal European countries. The four main towns are Ashbourne, Bakewell, Matlock and Wirksworth and includes over 100 villages. In large part, it is made up of rolling landscapes, green valleys and ragged moorland, and it is inhabited by fierce, independent and proud Derbyshire men and women, the backbone of this country. Bakewell and Ashbourne
are established agricultural market towns, whereas Wirksworth, Bonsall, Monyash and Tideswell were centres of lead-mining. The population lies mainly along the River Derwent.
I am proud to state that there is a very clear connection between my constituency and this place. It is said that Henry Yevele, from the village of Yeaveley in the south of the Derbyshire Dales, did for English architecture what Chaucer did for English literature. He built the Jewel Tower across the road from this place and helped to remodel, reface and reroof Westminster Hall, as well as much of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral. He used Derbyshire stone in his projects—this is of national significance—just as it was used several hundred years later when Birchover gritstone was used as load-bearing columns in the construction of Portcullis House. The flagstones for Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park Corner and the Thames Embankment also came from the Derbyshire Dales.
My constituency can also lay claim to be the home of the vigorous contact sport similar to the game of British bulldog so beloved of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. The Royal Shrovetide football match is a game played annually on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in the town of Ashbourne since the 1600s. It is played with a hand-sewn leather ball throughout the entire town, in its streets, fields and waterways, with sometimes more than 5,000 people divided into two teams made up of those born north of Henmore Brook, the Up’Ards, and those born south of it, the proud Down’Ards. The game is played over eight hours and the goals are three miles apart. It can be best described as a huge moving scrum with very few rules, the first and earliest of which is “no murder”. I know that the Prime Minister is not averse to a rough and tumble, and I cordially invite him to come and possibly participate, incognito, should he wish to come next Shrovetide.
Speaking of Ashbourne, I give notice to my friends on the Front Bench that they will be hearing a lot about the Ashbourne bypass, which we desperately need. It is a project of tremendous national strategic interest, because it services the quarries that provide minerals that are mined only in this particular constituency. We are fortunate to have many buildings of national significance in the constituency, including Chatsworth, Haddon, Sudbury and Kedleston, as well as Tissington, said by some to be the prettiest village in Derbyshire. In the words of that famous Chief Whip, Francis Urquhart, I could not possibly comment.
Derbyshire Dales has long been noted for economic innovation. We must not forget our historic traditional roots as we stand in these difficult times. It was the Silicon Valley of the 18th century. Richard Arkwright built the first water-powered cotton-spinning mill at Cromford in 1771, using waterpower provided by the fast-flowing streams. Inspired by the factory system pioneered by Arkwright, John Smedley, the knitwear company, was founded in 1784 by John Smedley at Lea Mills in Matlock. This factory, at over 230 years, is the world’s oldest continuous manufacturing factory in the country. It inspires local generations of families with its good practices of employer-employee relationships.
Derbyshire Dales was also the home of Florence Nightingale, the godmother of nursing in Britain and internationally. I do not forget agriculture, tourism, quarrying and mining. These are all vital aspects and
activities of the district. I will do everything I can to support those communities and the farming communities, which are the backbone of the economy.
Derbyshire Dales is mineral rich. It has a long history of mining and quarrying. It shaped the landscape that built Britain over centuries. The Longcliffe quarries in the constituency provide key materials that we need nationally for all sorts of manufacturing and capital projects.
Also in the Derbyshire Dales are a variety of other world-class businesses ranging from family firms to artisan businesses and creative entrepreneurs. As a new candidate, I was duty bound to sample the world-famous Bakewell pudding, Derbyshire oatcakes and outstanding English cheeses, such as Dovedale Blue, Hartington Stilton and Peakland White, all washed down by a variety of local beers, including Chatsworth Gold and Bakewell Best. Some had to be sampled several times, I am afraid. Another example of the bespoke businesses in the Derbyshire Dales is the exquisite jewellery made by the world-class creative designer Jane Orton, an example of which I am immensely proud to be wearing today.
Moving swiftly on, I was honoured to attend a large Remembrance Day parade of those proud people in Derbyshire Dales, just two days after I was selected. In so doing, we honoured the men and women of the armed services, many from Derbyshire, who lost their lives in the service of our country. It falls on us to protect their reputation in the face of opportunistic and vexatious prosecutions.
The security of this great country is not only entrusted to our gallant armed forces. We are also protected by our intelligence and security services, which are often the unsung heroes of battles fought in the twilight and dark, and in the cold. One hero in that field was Sir Maurice Oldfield, the seventh director of the Secret Intelligence Service back in the days when it did not officially exist. I took some time off during my election campaign to visit his birthplace in my constituency, the village of Youlgrave, as well as Over Haddon, the village where he grew up and where he was buried in St Anne’s churchyard.
A tenant farmer’s son, Maurice Oldfield was one of the country’s most distinguished intelligence officers. He served at the height of the cold war and was described by the arch Soviet agent Kim Philby as formidable. He returned to Over Haddon for weekends as often as he could. He was noted for Derbyshire common sense. It is that sort of common sense that we need to embrace for the security and defence of the country in today’s world.
As for myself, I am a Conservative by both nature and nurture. I was born into this tribe. My first association, back in what was then the nuclear-free Labour heartland of Basildon, was a family enterprise run by my mother from the kitchen table in our council house. She canvassed with me in the pram. At the age of eight, I delivered my first Conservative party leaflet. At the age of 17, I was part of the selection committee that launched the distinguished parliamentary career of my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess), who I am delighted to see here today.
Like so many on our side of the Chamber, I am a living embodiment of Conservative policies. I am a working-class, council-reared, comprehensive school-educated Conservative—a product of Margaret Thatcher’s
blueprint for change. Her vision socially and economically enfranchised millions of individuals across our country, presenting them with opportunities unavailable to previous generations. I am one of those people. This country needs to continue to level up.
For example, vocational guidance at my comprehensive school scoffed at my stated ambition to become a barrister, suggesting hairdressing instead. I pushed back at that arbitrary ceiling for girls and women then, just as I now push for the levelling up at the heart of the Prime Minister’s vision for our country. I believe in the free markets, free trade, rule of law and meritocracy that made this country the greatest nation in the world.
I am humbled to stand here today in this Chamber, which has echoed with the speeches of many great people, including my hero Margaret Thatcher, and the largely unsung heroes, such as Airey Neave, Ian Gow— both tragically assassinated—and others, who paved her way.
My politics are simple: I am instinctively cautious of the encroachment of the state into the lives of everyday people. I believe that George Washington—an Englishman born in America, of course—got it right when he observed that government, like fire, is both a fearful master and a dangerous servant. It is our duty as legislators to act as an ever-vigilant fire brigade keeping government in check and dampening down its innately incendiary tendencies.
The Prime Minister has spoken of the importance of levelling up and I, for one, could not agree more. In so doing, the Conservative party would rightly claim the mantle of other historic movements, such as the Levellers of the 1640s and 1650s—the blue collar Conservatives of their day—whose free-market and social radicalism indelibly shaped so much of the parliamentary system and rights that we have today. Their vision might have been too much for the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, but their time may well have come under this Prime Minister.
I thank you for your patience, Madam Deputy Speaker, and other right hon. and hon. Members for theirs. It was a privilege to speak today and I am very proud to represent the people of the Derbyshire Dales in this House. I hope that I might be able to catch your eye from time to time.