Chris Hinchliff: New North East Herts MP tells sobering story of a tragic constituent in his maiden speech to the Commons

Little Hadham’s new Labour MP Chris Hinchliff took inspiration from political trailblazer Shirley Williams in his maiden speech in the House of Commons.

At the General Election, the former North Herts district councillor for Royston Palace ward and the authority’s executive member for planning and transport ended a straight run of Conservative victories to win the North East Herts seat.

It had been held by Conservative Sir Oliver Heald since it was created in 1997, but he did not stand for re-election on July 4.

Mr Hinchliff overturned the Tories’ 2019 election majority of 18,189. He polled 18,358 votes – 1,923 more than his nearest rival, Conservative Nikki da Costa, an adviser to former Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

His maiden speech came in a second reading for the Great British Energy Bill. On Thursday (Sept 5), Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband said: “At the General Election, the British people voted for change, and they voted for our party’s promise of the first new national, publicly owned energy generation company in our country for more than 75 years: Great British Energy.”

Mr Hinchliff, who studied history at Cambridge University before a masters in ecological economics at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The ongoing transition of our energy system is having a profound and, sadly, often harmful impact on many of the communities in my constituency, so I am very hopeful that the provisions in the Bill will begin at last to put the future of renewable energy in the service of those I represent.

“I warmly commend to my honourable friends on the front bench the proposals… for Great British Energy to be given a duty to deliver nature recovery alongside its other objectives.

“I begin this speech by paying tribute to my predecessor, who served our constituency and this house faithfully for many years.

“The clear proof of the diligence with which he carried out his duties and the respect he earned from his constituents was plainly obvious from the feedback on the doorstep throughout the General Election.

“I especially want to thank my predecessor for the work he did to support the campaign for Hugh’s law to secure better financial support for parents caring for seriously ill children, and also for his work fighting for the restoration of the several internationally significant chalk schemes that flow through North East Hertfordshire. I look forward to doing what I can to further both of those important projects during my time in this place.

“Although the many years of my predecessor’s incumbency have all but erased it from our memory, I am not in fact the first member of my party to represent communities in North East Hertfordshire.

“The late, great, trailblazing Shirley Williams, when she was first elected as a Labour MP, represented many of the areas that make up my constituency.

“Despite the intervening 60 years, I found reading her maiden speech from 1964 very helpful in preparing for this moment, for, as she said then, the constituency I represent is in ‘many ways…a microcosm’ of much of our country.”

Shirley Williams was elected as MP for Hitchin in 1964. Much of the seat was transferred to the new North Herts constituency in 1983. The borders were redrawn again in 1997 to form North East Herts.

Mr Hinchliff said: “North East Hertfordshire, from Hinxworth to Bayford, contains many small rural communities full of important history and culture – from the home of George Orwell in Wallington to the stained-glass windows designed by William Morris and pre-Raphaelite artists in Waterford.

“In Baldock, Buntingford and Royston, we have quintessentially English market towns, home to fantastic independent businesses as well as nationally significant companies such as Johnson Matthey.

“In Letchworth, we have the world’s first garden city, built on the principles of the common ownership of land, which to this day offers a radical example of how to better design and build the communities of the future.

“Surrounding it all, we have some of the best agricultural land in the country, with local farmers such as those near Groundswell in Weston and Finches farm in Benington spearheading the ecological innovation we need to grow fantastic food in harmony with nature.

“Yet in my experience of speaking to residents right across North East Hertfordshire, the recurring theme is of communities dispirited and frustrated at having their needs put aside in the interests of what others have called progress, so I will close by mentioning one debt of honour that I want to bring to honourable members’ attention at this time.

“I have been asked to keep the following story anonymous by the family in question, but I believe it illustrates powerfully how the communities outside our urban centres are too often treated.

“During the General Election, as I reached the last road canvassing in a particularly idyllic village in my constituency, I came to knock on the final door in a quiet row of terraces.

“After initially waiting without answer, I was about to leave when I was called over by a voice from the passenger seat of a nearby car. The gentleman sat there was not old and was keen to speak, but was clearly very ill.

“Between painful coughing and laboured breathing, he explained to me how in the construction of new housing in the meadow beyond his street, agricultural sheds containing asbestos were demolished with almost incomprehensible recklessness in a single afternoon by workers who were themselves equipped with virtually none of the necessary protective equipment.

“Rather than the asbestos being carefully removed, it was smashed up on site, creating large clouds of hazardous dust right next to the existing homes.

“The gentleman I was speaking to had, tragically, subsequently contracted asbestosis, which had ruined his health and left him barely able to travel from his front door to his car.

“Despite the concerns he raised at the time, no one was ever held to account for these actions, and he urged me passionately to raise the dangers associated with the rushed and unsafe demolition of agricultural buildings containing asbestos at the earliest opportunity if I was elected as his MP.

“I am sorry to inform the House that when I returned a few weeks later to speak to him about honouring his request and including this story in my maiden speech, I was told by his widow that he had recently passed away.

“The chance for any meaningful justice for this family has now gone with him. Meanwhile, developers have no doubt pocketed a return on investment that much fatter for having fatally cut corners at the expense of local residents.

“Whether it is profit-led developments, the cancellation of bus routes or the closure of banks and village schools, the fundamental experience of towns and villages like those in North East Hertfordshire has too often been one of being done to and expected to endure, rather than one of being looked after, worked with and empowered to contribute.”

Mr Hinchliff, a former campaigns manager for countryside charity CPRE, concluded: “It is this, above all, that I hope to chip away at in my contributions in this place. I thank the House for listening patiently to my first attempt, and my constituents for giving me the opportunity to do so.”

The North East Hertfordshire constituency includes the East Herts A120 villages of Little Hadham, Braughing, Standon and Puckeridge.