This week is Armed Forces Week and as today is Veterans Day Darren is delivering his Maiden Speech in Parliament.. Darren spoke about why he feels it is his duty to ‘Serve Broxtowe’. Also, he shared that he is the first ever Conservative MP of West Indian Heritage and how his Afro is growing back in lockdown!
Darren Henry, Member of Parliament for Broxtowe made his Maiden Speech today (Thursday 25th June) in the chamber of the House of Commons, saying:
Madame Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to make this - my maiden speech.
It is a great honour and a great responsibility, joyfully accepted, to represent the people of Broxtowe with all the energy, determination, and commitment of which I am capable. I say to all my constituents, I will be your man. I will stand up for you. I will not turn from the challenges you face but make them my own. While I have the privilege to serve you - you will not be forgotten in this Place.
Madame Deputy Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor as Member for Broxtowe, Anna Soubry. I may not have agreed with all that she said in this Place, but I wish to set on record my acknowledgement of the good work she did for Broxtowe and for her constituents. I wish to thank her for her efforts towards improving access at Beeston Railway Station. I admire her strong will and her determination to do what she felt was best for Broxtowe and for this country, and I wish her the best of British.
Madame Deputy Speaker, this week is the 72nd Anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush. The people of the Windrush Generation came to Britain to help re-build our great country - and my parents were among them.
Dad, Harry, is from Jamaica and Mum, Gloria, from Trinidad. Like many of that too-long ignored Generation, they worked hard to make a good life here. Dad worked double shifts and Mum worked all day in a factory. They saved, they bought a house, they were ambitious - and they prospered. We were a traditional British working-class family: hard working, loyal, fiercely patriotic - and Conservative.
The members opposite claim Windrush as their own. As if it is obvious that immigrants are somehow obliged, morally, and practically, to be Labour supporters. Well, my family was not - and I am not. I stand here as evidence of what immigrants, and their children, can achieve in what my parents called the land of opportunity. I am proud to be the first Conservative MP of West Indian heritage. Black, British with all my heart, immensely proud of my West Indian heritage, and Conservative to my fingertips.
Madame Deputy Speaker, before coming to this Place I spent 26 years in the Royal Air Force. Like others here, I knew that service to my country was the right and dutiful career for me. I should say though, that on my first day of joining the RAF I had a splendid Afro hair-style - and now because of weeks of lockdown I am delighted my Afro is coming back.
The Armed Forces are known for getting things done, and that is what I will do for the people of Broxtowe. At Chilwell Station, also known as Chetwynd Barracks, we have seen Service personnel, as part of Op RESCRIPT, assisting efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. As it is Armed Forces week, and Veterans’ Day today, I hope this message is heard loud and clear by my fellow veterans: if you are driven by public service, as I am, stand up and serve your community again.
During my election campaign, I pledged to support investment for our local hospitals as part of my six-point plan for Broxtowe. This is a cause close to my heart - my wife, Caroline, spent 25-weeks out of her 34-week pregnancy in hospital. It is to Caroline and the NHS staff at Nottingham City Hospital that I say thank you for the blessing that is my twin children. Which is why I am delighted that, after months of lobbying, this Government has provided ‘seed money’ for the local Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust to develop and rebuild modular buildings and key sites including a new Women’s and Children’s Unit which will benefit families in Broxtowe.
Parents do their best for their children. As the father of two children with autism, I recognize that those in Broxtowe on the autistic spectrum or who suffer with mental health conditions, have found it particularly difficult being cooped up during lockdown. In normal times, getting mental health support is a struggle - I am convinced it does not have to be this way and the Government’s planned reform of the Mental Health Act must ensure that people, subject to the Act, receive better care and have a much greater say in that care.
I will continue to fight to secure the needs of vulnerable people in Broxtowe. They will not be forgotten.
Madam Deputy Speaker, during today’s debate we are considering support for UK industries in response to COVID-19. In my own constituency of Broxtowe, enterprises as varied as the Boots’ headquarters, which opened the first non-NHS swab testing site in the country, or independent family-run firms, like Fred Hallam’s grocers who delivered extensively to help people during COVID-19, we have seen businesses diversify to ensure the needs of our community are met. With the HS2 East Midlands Hub set to be in Toton, and Stapleford soon to be revitalised by the Towns’ Deal Funding. Broxtowe will have a thriving future.
I will work to make that vision a reality for the people of Broxtowe. My constituency, my people. To paraphrase DH Lawrence, a local lad made good: “I will be still when I have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves me, I will say and say it hot.”
