Economic Affairs and Work and Pensions

Shabana Mahmood Excerpts

Tuesday 8th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood (Birmingham, Ladywood) (Lab)]

I am grateful to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my first contribution in the House, especially as today’s debate has particular resonance for me and my constituency. I shall talk about that shortly, but before doing so I must congratulate all hon. Members who have made their maiden speeches today, because they were all excellent and are a hard act to follow. In particular, I am delighted to follow the maiden speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali) who, like me, is one of the first Muslim women to be elected to this House. As we are joined in that achievement by my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi), I can only remark that Muslim women in the Commons are rather like buses: there are none for ages and then three come along at once.

My predecessor, Clare Short, was very well known for being unafraid to speak her mind. When making her maiden speech in 1983, Clare said:

“I intend to follow tradition and speak about my constituency. However, it is impossible for me to follow the tradition of not being controversial”. —[Official Report, 29 June 1983; Vol. 44, c. 623.]

That was a sign of things to come, but it was also indicative of her honesty. Clare had a distinguished career as a Labour MP but following differences over the Iraq war she ultimately resigned the Labour Whip in October 2006, choosing to sit as an independent MP. She was not the first Labour MP from Birmingham, Ladywood to have disagreed with the Labour party over policy, because our predecessor, Victor Yates, who held the seat from 1945 to 1969, had the Whip withdrawn from him twice. That meant that he, too, sat as an independent in this House for a period of time. This is not a Ladywood tradition that I hope to continue, but I will strive to emulate the passion and fearlessness of my predecessors in standing up for the people of my constituency. In every part of Ladywood, Clare is remembered with pride, warmth and gratitude for her hard work, and that is the best and most fitting tribute that I can give to this most outspoken of MPs.

I am a Brummie born and bred, so the fact that I now represent a constituency that is the heart of Birmingham is a source of great honour and it is a privilege. My constituency consists of four extremely diverse and different wards: Aston, Ladywood, Nechells, and Soho. Between them, they are home to the Grade I-listed Aston hall, the historic Jewellery quarter, the Star City entertainment complex and the Grade II-listed Soho house, home of the manufacturer Matthew Boulton. I am also lucky to have both Aston Villa and Birmingham City football clubs in my constituency, but as both are in the premier league I will have to learn new skills of football diplomacy when the two sides play each other.

Birmingham, Ladywood is one of the most multicultural areas in the country. More than 50% of our population is non-white and we have a proud multicultural tradition. I have been privileged to meet many people from all race and faith backgrounds during my time as a candidate and now as a Member of Parliament. Each such meeting has reiterated to me that while the people of my constituency might have come from different places, the destination they seek is the same—a place of greater opportunity and the same chance as everyone else to succeed.

That brings me to why it is so important to me to begin my parliamentary career by speaking in this debate and focusing on the labour market. My constituency has the devastating and unwanted distinction of having the highest rate of unemployment in the country. Our figures for unemployment have been too high for many decades. In researching my maiden speech, I noted with dismay that unemployment was a theme in the maiden speeches of many of my recent predecessors. My constituency is particularly blighted by long-term intergenerational worklessness, which is the legacy of previous recessions which devastated my constituency so much that it has never really recovered. I was pleased, therefore, when the Labour Government announced in December 2007 that £1.5 billion would be provided through the working neighbourhoods fund specifically to tackle the problem of long-term worklessness, and allocated more than £100 million of that money to Birmingham.

I wish that action had been taken earlier in our term in office. However, I have real concerns about the effectiveness of the working neighbourhoods fund in Birmingham, where the partnership tasked with delivering the fund is controlled by Birmingham city council, which has been run by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in coalition since 2004. To date, the fund has not been adequately used for the express purpose for which it was created by the Labour Government—to help to reduce unemployment in Birmingham’s most deprived communities such as my own. Two facts are evidence of that. First, mid-way through the three-year programme, of the £30 million that had been spent, only £2.5 million had actually been spent on projects to tackle worklessness. Secondly, and just as controversially, £14 million of working neighbourhoods fund money was diverted to help to bail out the Tory-Lib Dem council’s budget overspend on social services. I believe that cash for jobs should be spent on jobs, and I hope that what is left of that money is spent in the way intended by the Labour Government—to support the long-term unemployed in areas such as mine in getting the skills and confidence that they need in order to get and retain a job so that they can transform their lives.

I wish to make a related point on youth unemployment. In 1983, Clare Short warned that school leavers in Ladywood in the 1980s faced unemployment not only in ever greater numbers, but for ever greater periods of time. In 2010, I find myself warning that the children of that generation might be in the same boat, because of the new Government’s plans to cut the future jobs fund. That fund created 200,000 jobs and arose from our guarantee of a job, or training or a work placement, for anyone who was under 25 and out of work for six months. I am disappointed that the new Government are getting rid of the fund. Once again, a Conservative Government—this time helped by the Liberal Democrats—are walking away from the young unemployed in our country. I implore them to change course. When we damage our young people, we damage us all, because they are our future. If the Government walk away from them and break their hearts and spirits, they truly will create a broken Britain.

I conclude on a personal note and with a pledge to the people of Birmingham, Ladywood. My grandfather came to this country from Pakistan in the 1960s. He worked long hours on a low wage and made sacrifices so that his family could access greater opportunity. He died when I was six years old and did not live to enjoy the fruits of his labour. He could not have known that his decisions and his hard work would one day lead to his granddaughter being elected to this House. I pay tribute to him and to the successes of the Labour party and the Labour Government, who created the opportunities that made my family’s journey and that of so many ordinary hard-working families possible. I believe that opportunity and the chance to fulfil one’s aspirations is the birthright of every one of our citizens, and I pledge to the people of Birmingham, Ladywood that I will devote myself to eradicating the misery, hopelessness and sheer waste of long-term unemployment so that my constituents can have what they deserve—the same chance to succeed in life as everyone else. For however long I am their Member of Parliament, I will never settle for anything less. I thank the House for listening.