Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to make my maiden speech in this august Chamber. I join other hon. Members in welcoming you to your place, and the ministerial team and the shadow ministerial team to their places as well. I congratulate all hon. Members who have made their maiden speeches today; we have heard excellent contributions. I thank, in particular, the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Claire Young), who described her constituency so eloquently that it makes one want to visit, but those who know me will know that a visit by me would be accompanied with a Labour party campaign.
May I also please take this opportunity to thank all the staff across the parliamentary estate who have worked incredibly hard and always courteously to help me and, I am sure, many other hon. Members to establish ourselves in this place?
I also take the opportunity to thank the voters of Smethwick, who have entrusted me with the honour and responsibility of being their elected Member of Parliament. It is indeed a great honour to stand here today, and I give the voters my word that I will work to repay their trust to the best of my abilities.
Of course, I would not be here without the support of my family. My grandfathers, Bhan Singh and Niranjan Singh, arrived in the UK in 1956 and 1957 and carried out manual jobs in foundries and brickworks respectively. They came with hope for a better life for them and their families, but they also came with a strong belief that, with hard work, they would be able to forge a better life in Great Britain.
My father, Swaran Singh Josan, was 10 years old when he arrived in Smethwick in 1958. He had most of his education here, and he went on to work as an engineer for the Post Office, which went on to become British Telecom. Alongside that, in 1975 he, my mum and my uncle established a family business—a hardware store and plumbers’ merchant—on the high street in Smethwick, and my brothers continue to run the business today. My father was also active in his trade union and the Labour party. He was elected to Sandwell council in 1986 and subsequently three times. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1999, when he was the cabinet member for housing in Sandwell. Being in this place was always his dream. I believe that he would be proud of this achievement.
It is a convention of the House to speak in good terms about one’s predecessor. My predecessor is the right hon. John Spellar, and those who know him will know two things. First, it does not require convention for me to speak well of him. Secondly, bearing in mind that his phone ringtone is the theme tune to “The Godfather”, it is a convention that I dare not ignore. John was first elected to the House in a by-election in 1982 in Birmingham Northfield. He was then elected as Member of Parliament for Warley West in 1992, and for Warley in 1997. In total, John gave over 32 years of service to the House, during which he served in ministerial and shadow ministerial roles. In addition, he gave stalwart service to the people he was elected to represent and is always greeted fondly across the whole constituency. John also played a considerable role over all those years in working to keep the Labour party in the centre ground—the ground where elections are won and lives can be changed for the better. He leaves me with incredibly big shoes to fill. I am delighted that he is being elevated to the other place.
Smethwick existed as the name for the constituency between 1918 and 1997 and has been brought back following the recent boundary changes. The constituency consists of the former Warley constituency and most of the Blackheath ward. It includes the football ground of West Bromwich Albion—the Baggies. It is an extremely diverse place with a relatively young demographic and a significant black, Asian and minority ethnic community, particularly from the Muslim and Sikh backgrounds.
Smethwick was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Its people are a proud people, who are particularly proud of our industrial heritage. As an example, Smethwick is the location of the Soho Foundry, created by Matthew Boulton and James Watt in 1775, where the oldest working steam engine in the world was built.
Historically, in addition to my predecessor, Smethwick also saw Christabel Pankhurst standing in the 1918 general election just after women were given the vote. Oswald Mosley was the MP between 1926 and 1929. Smethwick also had the shortest serving MP ever elected. Alfred Dobbs was elected in the 1945 general election.
However, the day after the election he was killed in a car accident on his way to Westminster. Being aware of that record, I waited three days after the election before driving extra carefully down to Parliament.
Perhaps the most infamous previous MP for the seat was Peter Griffiths, the Tory party candidate who was elected in 1964 after running a disgraceful and nakedly racist campaign with a disgusting slogan, which I will not repeat as it used the racist N-word. The election and racial tensions at the time prompted a visit a few months later to the constituency by Malcolm X, which was just about a week before he was killed. Thankfully, Peter Griffiths’s term was brought to an end by Andrew Fauld, who defeated him in the 1966 general election. Smethwick was undergoing huge changes at the time. In 1967, it saw the appointment of the first black headteacher in the UK, Tony O’Connor, at Bearwood primary school.
The general election was about change. After 14 years, the British people have voted for change and given a huge mandate to the Prime Minister and the Labour party. The recent King’s Speech contained Bills that will bring huge change to the country, our public services and the lives of the people we represent. The Prime Minister can be sure that his programme has my full support.
Among those Bills, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill will bring much-needed change on our railways. Its provisions that will bring franchises into public control and, along with provisions that will set up Great British Railways, were widely discussed and understood by voters during the general election. It is clear that voters support the changes proposed in the Bill.
For me, the election was also about change across our communities. One example of that change in Smethwick is the fact that 60 years after that disgraceful racist campaign, I—a child and grandchild of immigrants—can be elected to this House. That change is the result of many people across Smethwick and Sandwell working hard to build relationships and understanding across all communities and ensuring that we deliver on the aspirations of all our people.
Smethwick is an incredibly diverse yet harmonious place. It is my community. By that, I mean it is the street I live on, the park opposite, the church on Church Hill Street, the Jamia mosque on Oldbury Road, the Bangladeshi mosques in north Smethwick, the Somali community centre, the Smethwick Asian Sheltered and Residential Association, SAFS caring family support, St Albans community centre, Better Understanding of Dementia for Sandwell, the Royal British Legion branches and clubs, Brushstrokes, Brandhall Labour club, the schools where I am a governor, the gurdwaras where I pray, the high street where I worked and so much more. That is my community.
Yet in Smethwick we also have our challenges. Some of those spilt out during the election, as they did in other places. The election saw the rise of smaller parties and independents, including those driven by foreign policy issues and others such as the Reform party. I am chair of trustees at Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, and I see how hate and aggression increasingly define our public discourse, particularly on online platforms, but also more and more in person. It is a responsibility of all of us to challenge and address that, and to ensure that kindness is the basis of all that we do. To those who
did not vote for me in Smethwick, I say: I am still your Member of Parliament and I still want to talk to you about the issues that concern you.
Many Members have said that being in this place is the honour of our lives, so over the weekend I thought about that and questioned why we say it. What came to my mind is that people have voted for us—they have gone out there, put a cross by our names and put their trust in us. We are in the mother of all Parliaments, and we will make decisions that will change this country. Those are all reasons why it is a real honour to be here. But the biggest reason why it is an honour to be in this Chamber is the people. We have heard so many excellent maiden speeches over the past couple of weeks, which signify the strength of this Chamber. The Chamber without its people is just Benches, and Benches do not do anything. Institutions without people in them do not do anything. It is the people who will bring change. The honour is being here alongside so many fantastic people. I may disagree with those on other Benches, fundamentally and robustly, but it is an honour to be here alongside every single one of them.
I have always been driven by a strong sense of humanity, fairness and justice. My upbringing and my Sikhi faith are key to my beliefs. I am reminded of the line in Gurbani written by Guru Nanak:
“Ham Nahi Changae, Bura Nahi Koi.”
I am not good; no one is bad. That draws attention to the equality of all of us, regardless of any of our attributes. A good friend in interfaith circles describes Sikhi in a four-letter word: love. We believe that God is omnipresent, across and within all of creation. So to love God is to love other people. For those of no faith, it does no harm to love others in any case.
I consider myself incredibly lucky. I have the incredible support of my family: my wife Harvinder, my son Pavandeep, my daughter Gurkirta, my mum Bhajan Kaur Josan, my nephews Gagandeep, Puneetpal and Ishmeet, who are all here in the Gallery. I have been elected to represent a constituency that is embedded in my heart. I sit on the Benches of a Government who will serve the people. I know that there is incredibly hard work ahead; that there will be disagreements and robust words, and difficult decisions will need to be made. But I am committed to serving this House and the voters of Smethwick to the best of my ability.
7.42 pm