Economic Affairs and Work and Pensions

Kate Green Excerpts

Tuesday 8th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

I am hugely proud to be giving my maiden speech this afternoon as the new Member for Stretford and Urmston. I think that mine is the first maiden speech today. My constituency is, of course, very special. I am deeply privileged to represent it and I hope to serve my constituents well.

My first act in Parliament must be to pay tribute to my predecessors, starting with the right hon. Beverley Hughes. Hon. Members will be aware of Bev’s tremendous contribution to public life as a Minister, and I especially want to acknowledge her contribution as children’s Minister and her achievement in bringing forward the implementation of the Sure Start programme. Bev was immensely respected locally as a first-rate constituency MP, and I think that mattered more to her than anything she achieved as a Minister, despite her many successes in that role. I am delighted, as I know all hon. Members will be, that she is to remain in Parliament as a Member of the House of Lords.

I should also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Tony Lloyd). He first entered the House as the Member for Stretford in 1983, and he retains the great respect and affection of my constituents to this day.

My constituency is special for many reasons. It typifies what is best about our country, such as hard-working, neighbourly people who are determined to do their best for their families and their community—people who are down-to-earth but who have ambitions, hopes and dreams. Old Trafford is world-famous well beyond the constituency boundary as home to both Lancashire county cricket club and Manchester United football club, whose stadium will be known to many hon. Members as the aptly named “theatre of dreams”. To us locally, Old Trafford is just as exceptional for its success as a vibrant, friendly, welcoming and supportive multicultural community. I believe that it is a real showcase for the strengths that we gain from different cultures and communities living, working and enjoying life together, celebrating their distinct identities, values and cultures but in doing so creating an exciting, caring and diverse neighbourhood where people live in harmony and peace.

The local neighbourhoods of Flixton, Urmston, Stretford, Partington, Ashton on Mersey and Carrington are also well settled, stable and tight-knit. They too foster dreams and aspirations and share pride in local success. Just the other day, Urmston resident Danielle Hope was chosen as the BBC’s new Dorothy, to the delight of local people who had cheered her on.

The constituency has a proud tradition of public service. It was to what is now Trafford general hospital in Davyhulme in the heart of the constituency that Nye Bevan came in 1948 to announce the birth of the NHS. That bold and unapologetic commitment to our public services remains important in the constituency to this day.

We are pleased too that the Imperial War museum has its northern base in the constituency—a reminder, as our troops show great courage today in seeking to bring peace in some of the most troubled parts of the world—of the proud tradition of military service.

Importantly too, the constituency has a proud working tradition as the home of Trafford Park, once the largest industrial estate in Europe and still home to many local and global businesses, and the Trafford Centre, with its many retail jobs. My constituents are proud of the contribution that we make to the UK and the regional economy, and they know the value and the dignity of work.

In the thousands of conversations that I have had with local people, they have repeated the importance of young people gaining the skills that they need, and getting into good jobs, as they start out in life. I was proud to be able to answer that, thanks to Labour’s investment in employment and skills, unemployment in this recession has up to now been lower than in the past two recessions, and that our future jobs fund would guarantee every young person training for a job.

Some hon. Members are perhaps a little younger than I am, and they may not have experienced growing up with the fear that there would be no work. My grandfathers knew that fear. My generation began our adult lives at the beginning of the 1980s facing the same fear. I am deeply concerned to prevent young people from facing the same fear today. A robust economy, a thriving business sector and an enabling welfare state are certainly part of the answer, but if work is to be a secure route out of poverty, we must both protect jobs and pay attention to dismantling the barriers that prevent people from taking up paid work.

My challenge to the Government, as they take forward their welfare reforms, is that they must guarantee that there will be adequate support. If they want to ensure that work pays, my challenge is that they must lead the way in the public sector, where a quarter of low-paid workers are employed, by adopting the living wage.

I ask the Government now to invest in the future. Good jobs, investment in our young people, a sustainable recovery and fairness in the economy are what my constituents want. I am determined that I will always speak out for them, and I hope that they will hold me to that.