New Green MP calls for tolerance and inclusivity in first Commons speech | Hannah Spencer
Greens MP Hannah Spencer, who won last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election, used her maiden speech in the House of Commons to call for tolerance and inclusivity and advocate for more people with manual labor backgrounds to be elected to parliament.
Saying that she wanted to “normalize hope again,” Spencer said in a discussion about International Women’s Day that she learned that some children were dressing up as “Hannah the Plumber”, wearing overalls and imitating her unique hairstyle for events celebrating the day at their schools.
Spencer overturned Labour’s 13,000 majority in the by-election, defeating Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin and pushing Keir Starmer’s party into third place.
“Four weeks ago today I was at college, a plumber learning to plaster,” he began Thursday. “And today I am in parliament as an MP. It is the honor of my life to be here. But I do not want this to be unusual or exceptional. I truly believe that everyone who does a job like me should sit on these benches.”
Echoing the theme of his byelection victory speech in which he promised to try to unite the various communities in his constituency, Spencer listed a range of local people and groups and said he would defend them all.
“To the girls whose photos I saw going to school on International Women’s Day dressed as ‘Hannah the Plumber’ with their overalls, spanners and trademark hairstyles. To the women in my life who have my back and fight for equality with me,” she said.
“And to the men I work with, especially the boys in my plaster course who have made great use of my newfound interest in the midst of our training, but whose mental health will suffer from the effects of this unequal society.
“To the veterans who risked everything and came home only to find society turned its back on them, to the white working class who were always lumped together and never appreciated.
“To everyone who has no place to sleep tonight or is barely surviving in a cold, damp and unsafe home, to my trans brothers and sisters who are blamed for everything, to Muslims everywhere who are constantly and often violently scapegoated.
“To people with disabilities who can’t access the world because of structural inequality that can be completely fixed, to people of color who have to work harder at everything.
“I don’t always understand it, I won’t say I always understand it. But what I do know is what it feels like to be underestimated. To be disappointed and left behind. To be less valuable because of something about me.”
Spencer, who said his own electorate had “suffered from decades of neglect and broken promises”, praised his predecessor, Labor’s Andrew Gwynne, for his work on tackling health inequalities and vowed to continue doing so.
In a speech that paid tribute to everyone from suffragette Elsie Plant, for whom Spencer named one of her greyhounds, to workers in her constituency as well as some cafes and pubs, the new MP said the lesson of International Women’s Day was: “Our struggles may be different, but our humanity is the same.”
He concluded: “I want to put Gorton and Denton on the map by championing the positive aspects of our community – the spirit, the warmth, the courage, and the way we help each other every day.
“Together we can make hope normal again. And no matter who we are, we will look out for each other. Because that’s exactly what we do where I come from.”
