Thank you, Madam Chair. It is a real honour and privilege to be able to make my maiden speech today, as the House debates the role of our railways. Before I continue, I must give credit to all those who have given their maiden speeches today. It is quite a daunting prospect to follow them all. I must comment on a few of the amazing journeys that have brought people here. I think of my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) and the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood); it was quite inspiring to hear their stories. I must also comment on the speech of the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith), as we are mutual friends of Sir Gary Streeter. It must have been quite a sight to see him do the loco-motion all those years ago.
It is of special importance to me to talk in the debate today on the role of our railways. The east coast main line goes right through my constituency. In fact, I think about half of it does, because we are the third largest constituency in England, with stations in Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick. Today we are debating the Government’s plans, over time, to put the railways back into public ownership, or as some might say, into public service. That is really what I want to address today—the idea and ideals of public service. All of us are here to serve the public, but we can only serve here because of the people who have gone before us, the people who support us, and of course the people who vote for us. So first, my thanks must go to the people of North Northumberland, including those who voted Labour for the first time. Indeed, whether they voted for me or not, I will serve them to the best of my ability.
My thanks also go to my family—first and foremost my wife, daughter and son, who are my bedrock and whose patience with me is frankly astonishing, but also to the generations that have gone before. When I think about public service, I think of my grandparents’ world war two generation. We have already heard about Monte Cassino a couple of times. Well, my grandfather fought
at Monte Cassino, El Alamein and elsewhere, and it would have been beyond his wildest dreams that his grandson would one day be standing here.
Speaking of those who have gone before in public service, I must recognise the great work of my predecessors as Members of Parliament for what is now North Northumberland. First, those two political peas in a pod, the right hon. former Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and my hon. Friend the former Member for Wansbeck, now the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery). As a former miner and engineer, my hon. Friend will have a great interest in the success of the railways, and he has also served his constituents with great distinction and tenacity for many years now. Anne-Marie Trevelyan’s public service included many significant roles in government, including Secretary of State for Transport, and I would like to thank her for her graciousness in the handover of the constituency casework. I must also mention Lord Beith. Although he retired from this place in 2015, he is still held in very high regard in Northumberland for his nearly 42 years of service. If I can earn just a small portion of the respect that he garnered, I will consider myself fortunate.
So now I pick up the baton, and I confess that one of the first things I checked, with a name as distinctive as my own, was whether I was the only David Smith MP elected on 4 July. Imagine my surprise and disappointment, then, when on the following day I received a congratulatory email from a Labour Member of Parliament called David Smith. Thankfully, that particular David Smith MP is a member of the Australian Parliament. I am, for now at least, the only David Smith in this place.
It is a convention for Members to try and mention every settlement in their constituency when giving their maiden speech. I have mentioned that mine is the third largest in England, so that may be a challenge. It is also traditional for Members of this place to make competing claims about how theirs is the most beautiful constituency in the land, so I am pleased to be able to put that debate to bed. Surely it is a certainty that the land of Bamburgh and Warkworth castles, of Druridge bay and Holy Island, of Rothbury, Wooler and the Cheviot hills and of the historic county towns of Berwick, Alnwick and Morpeth is the most beautiful in England. The number of Members who have holidayed in my constituency seems to confirm my conclusion. I am sure that those who have travelled on the east coast main line through my constituency, along our magnificent coastline, will do so again.
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North Northumberland is not only beautiful, but has produced and given a home to some of the most notable public servants in British history. Who can look past the role that Northumberland played in the establishment of early British Christianity? The Northumbrian saints, especially Cuthbert and Aidan, are renowned for their faith, wisdom, compassion and miracles, even if today, at least according to my daughter, the most famous North Northumberland resident with magical powers is a certain Mr Harry Potter.
Emily Wilding Davison, the suffragette from Morpeth, is another North Northumbrian who fought for what is right. Emily famously hid herself in a broom cupboard here in Parliament on the night of the 1911 census so that she could record her address as the House of
Commons to confound those who would deny women the right to vote. I am delighted to follow in her footsteps, and those of William Beveridge, the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed who authored the eponymous Beveridge report, which served as the basis for that great innovation, the welfare state introduced by the Labour Government in 1945. What would so many of us do without it?
North Northumberland is also home to vibrant and hard-working communities that serve in their own way. Whether it is those in the fisheries of Amble and Seahouses, the farmers working the land across the constituency from Alwinton to Norham to keep us fed, or the servicemen and women at RAF Boulmer who protect the UK’s airspace, the people of North Northumberland rightly take great pride in the work of their hands, in the county that they call home, and in the contribution that they make to the common good. Nowhere is that more true than in the grand town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, with its historic walls and majestic bridges, one of which, the Royal Border bridge, serves the east coast main line. My particular favourite, though, is the Union chain bridge, for all that it represents for the Union between Scotland and England. We truly have cross-border lives in North Northumberland. Today we have a choice to build either walls or bridges across that border, and I choose to be a bridge builder.
The truth is that when it comes to transport infrastructure, and even public service, we have a choice. Will we use it for private benefit or for the common good? For me, the common good must be paramount. We are of equal value by virtue of our humanity, but not all of us have the same opportunities, the same start in life or the same challenges to overcome. Many communities in my constituency feel left behind, and many feel out of sight and out of mind. Seeing the humanity in each other is a proactive choice. At times over the summer, some people in our country chose to ignore the humanity of others, with terrible consequences.
One of the most famous pieces of literature in our country’s history, a national treasure, comes from my constituency: the Lindisfarne gospels. How good it would be if they could return home to Holy Island one day, perhaps on the east coast main line. As beautiful as their calligraphy is, to me their primary value comes in the wisdom they contain and the story they tell. As I set out on the task of being a Member of Parliament, my thoughts turn to the wisdom of another part of the good book. Proverbs, chapter 31, says:
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Those are wise words for all with a heart for public service, especially those of us who call ourselves parliamentarians. As for me, they will be the axiom by which I expect my public service to be judged, however long I remain in this place.