Maiden Speech - Jo Cox House of Commons

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

It is a great privilege to be called to make my maiden speech in this

most important of debates, and I congratulate many others

who have made outstanding maiden speeches today.

I am sure that many right honorable and honorable Members will claim

that their constituencies consist of two halves or numerous

parochial parts - I am another in that respect,

and Batley and Spen is very much that kind of constituency.

It is a joy to represent such a diverse community.

Batley and Spen is a gathering of typically independent,

no-nonsense and proud Yorkshire towns and villages.

Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration,

be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency

or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan,

principally from Kashmir.

While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time

again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far

more united and have far more in common with each other

than things that divide us.

My constituency is also home to Fox's Biscuits

and Lion Confectionery, so I am sure you will not

think it an indulgence, Mr Speaker, if I describe Batley

and Spen as a constituency with an industrial heart wrapped

in a very rich and pleasant Yorkshire landscape - geographical,

historical and cultural.

The spirit of non-conformity is as prevalent now in my

part of West Yorkshire as it was in the time of my two

immediate predecessors, Mike Wood and Elizabeth Peacock.

They were both known for offering their own brand of independent,

non-conformist service, albeit in very different ways.

I intend to maintain that established tradition

in my own unique style.

Of course, Batley is a town that has sent Labour MPs to this place

for the best part of 100 years.

One of them, Dr Broughton, is of course famously credited

with bringing down a Government, so I respectfully put the right

honorable Members on the Front Bench opposite on notice.

The Spen Valley has a far more chequered political history,

alternately sending Labour and Conservative MPs

here to Westminster for much of the 20th century.

Nothing made me prouder on the 8th of May than to be sent to this place

with an increased Labour majority, proving again that in my neck

of the woods non-conformity is what we do best.

As I have already alluded to, we make things in Batley and Spen -

we do so now, just as we did historically.

Batley and Spen has a high proportion of people

working in manufacturing, and we can boast the full range

of industries, including high-skilled, precision engineering.

We manufacture all sorts, from beds to biscuits,

and from carpets to lathes.

We also have some of the best fish and chips in the country,

and some of the best curries in the world.

However, what many of our businesses are lacking is confidence,

confidence to expand, confidence to borrow,

confidence to grow, and the confidence to fuel a real

economic recovery that benefits everybody, offering decent jobs,

paying decent wages and bridging the skills gap.

Key to changing that situation is a fundamental shift in attitude

towards regional economic regeneration.

It is time to give city and county regions the powers and resources

they need to promote growth, and I will happily work

with all of those who are genuinely committed to building an economic

powerhouse in the north.

This agenda has to have at its centre a commitment

to connect towns and villages in constituencies like mine

to thriving city hubs, and to deliver a financial offer

in the forthcoming July Budget that gives this worthy goal a real

chance of success.

Yorkshire folk are not fools.

Talk about devolving power to cities and regions, while simultaneously

stripping them of the resources to deliver and subjecting northern

councils such as Kirklees to the harshest of cuts,

is not compatible with a worthy commitment to building

a Northern Powerhouse to drive growth and prosperity.

Businesses in my constituency want help to address the skills mismatch

at local level which leaves employers with staff shortages

and young people without jobs.

They want access to reliable sources of finance, including

a network of local banks.

They want to connect to a regional infrastructure that works for them,

not rail price hikes of more than 126% and endless delays to key

transport projects such as the electrification of the line

from Manchester to Leeds.

Many businesses in Yorkshire want the security and stability

of Britain's continued membership of the European Union,

a cause I look forward to championing passionately in this

place and elsewhere.

The key question is, will the Government's actions match

their Northern Powerhouse rhetoric?

HS2 is not the only acid test.

There are two bigger challenges.

First, will the Government really devolve all the powers and decisions

that could and should be taken locally and regionally?

My test will be this - if there is a compelling reason

for this to be a national decision then so be it.

If not, it should be devolved.

Secondly, will the Government really take the whole range

of their decisions - on transport, research

and development, planning, education and skills -

in the interests of rebalancing the economy and growing the north?

I am Batley and Spen born and bred, and I could not be prouder of that.

I am proud that I was made in Yorkshire and I am proud

of the things we make in Yorkshire.

Britain should be proud of that, too.

I look forward to representing the great people of Batley and Spen

here over the next five years.