The Economy

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

I am greatly honoured and feel immensely humbled and privileged to be in this place, representing the town of my birth. The circumstances that have caused me to be here were of course most tragic and sudden and I wish to make some comment about my immediate predecessor Sir Stuart Bell, who sadly died on 13 October 2012.

Sir Stuart became MP for Middlesbrough in 1983 after beating a certain Tony Blair in the selection process and represented the Middlesbrough constituency for almost 30 years until 2012. Such a lengthy period of service is quite remarkable and he was duly knighted in 2004 for his services to Parliament, as well as being awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 2006 for his contribution to British-French relations. Seven successive general election victories is a record that speaks for itself.

Middlesbrough is still a comparatively young town, and in the early part of the 19th century was nothing more than four farmhouses with a population of some 25 souls. It was the discovery of ironstone in the Eston hills and the subsequent production of pig iron that saw Middlesbrough’s Klondike-like growth over a relatively few short years. Indeed, the first MP for Middlesbrough was Henry Bolckow. a German national until his naturalisation as a British subject in 1841. He is undoubtedly one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough.

In 1851, at the time Bolckow opened his blast furnaces on Teesside, the population was 8,000; by 1871 it had grown to 40,000. In 1853, the town received a charter of incorporation and Bolckow became its first mayor and the town’s first MP when it was granted the status of a parliamentary borough in 1868. I have been labouring under the misapprehension that I was the first locally born MP for Middlesbrough, but I discovered that Penry Williams beat me to it when he was first elected as a Liberal MP in 1910. However, I think I can lay claim to being the first Labour MP for Middlesbrough to have been born in the town.

I could not let this occasion pass without mentioning one of my most notable predecessors, namely Ellen Wilkinson, otherwise known as “Red Ellen”, who first won the Middlesbrough East seat in 1924. She was of course a leading light in the women’s suffrage movement and, having lost Middlesbrough East in 1931, went on to become the Labour MP for Jarrow, holding ministerial office as well as taking part in the famous Jarrow march. It was lovely during the course of the election to meet Bob Carter of Bellamy court in Pallister park, who is well into his 90s and was a runner for Ellen Wilkinson. He was vote-catching in that last election.

The town motto is “Erimus” which means “We shall be” and is a direct response to the motto of the Brus family who owned the site on which Middlesbrough is built. Their motto “Fuimus” means “We have been'” and the town motto was chosen to signify the town’s will to grow and become great from its foundation. It encapsulates the energy, ambition and aspiration of the people who came from all over the British isles and beyond to seek employment in the burgeoning industries of the mid and late 19th century.

Since those times people have continued to come from far and wide to work in our world-class industries of steel, bridge and shipbuilding, petro-chemicals and oil and gas, and now in our digital and renewable energy industries. By definition, glancing back over just a few generations, we in Middlesbrough can all trace our forebears to other parts of these islands and much further afield—right across the globe. In short, we all came from somewhere else.

Our magnificent Teesside university, which in very recent times was awarded the title of university of the year, continues to draw students from all over the world and contributes in no small measure to the development of new industries, especially in the area of digital technologies. That all adds to our diversity and the rich cultural mix of our town, and it is a joy for me to be at the service of all the people of Middlesbrough of whatever background, or whatever faith, or of none, in full recognition of the common values at large in our community as we work towards our shared values of social justice, understanding, peace and tolerance.

We have a real sense of community in Middlesbrough, and we have a lot to be proud of, including our wonderful James Cook University hospital and our schools, the majority of which have either been rebuilt or refurbished over the last 10 years or so. We also have MIMA—the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art—and, of course, the magnificent, trophy-winning Middlesbrough football club. Undoubtedly, however, we face very challenging economic times. Our rates of unemployment are unenviably high, which is why I will conclude my speech with a plea.

Although the entire House will undoubtedly agree with me that it is never acceptable for an individual to reject the genuine opportunity of work, it seems to be increasingly part of the accepted orthodoxy that those who suffer the indignity of unemployment do so as a result of the lifestyle choice that they make. That is a gross and offensive misrepresentation.

In a town where more than 10 people currently chase each and every job that comes along, it is a most cruel slight and insult to say, as some assert with unremitting regularity, that all such people are somehow by definition scroungers. To all those who would say such things, I make this plea: if they are fortunate enough to be in employment or to have other means and if they can heat their homes and support their families, they should tread carefully on the sensitivities of those who cannot make such boasts. Such attacks on the powerless and impoverished serve only to reaffirm their sense of alienation and desperation, which in turn fractures our society and offends against the finest of British traditions that in times of hardship, we protect, support and care for one another.

It is my belief that the overwhelming majority of the British people expect us in this House to speak up for working families that are having their budgets squeezed and for young people who are struggling to find their first job. In recent weeks, I have talked to thousands of people in Middlesbrough, so I know that people are anxious and scared for the future of their families. To make matters worse, there is a sense that some politicians are determined to set community against community and neighbour against neighbour. It is my fervent belief that we must strenuously resist the temptation of such politically expedient arguments, and as an alternative we should engender a real sense of one nation so that we can rebuild our country and restore fairness so that everyone has a stake and not just a privileged few.