Fuel Duty

Part of Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 5:51 pm on 16 July 2008.

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Photo of John Howell John Howell Conservative, Henley 5:51, 16 July 2008

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech. The pressure to make this speech at the earliest opportunity has come from some surprising sources. As I arrived here on my very first day, I was handed a telephone message from the local Oxfordshire press inquiring whether I had delivered it yet. Clearly, my predecessor's departure to be Mayor of London has liberated acres of column inches in my local papers that now need to be filled.

For seven years, Boris Johnson served the people of the Henley constituency with distinction, dedication and considerable panache. There can be few people in public life so well known that a surname is superfluous, and few who have had such an enviable ability to relate to people from all walks of life. London is, indeed, fortunate, and the people of my constituency are proud of Boris's success and achievement. During the election campaign, it became apparent on the doorsteps just how much Boris had done as a constituency MP. For a man used always to being in the limelight, most of this had been done without fuss, but in the knowledge that it made a real contribution to the lives of the people of south Oxfordshire. People in one village in the constituency recalled Boris making a complicated journey from London simply to play a cameo role in the village panto. His ability to arrive late for almost all occasions must have presented particular challenges for the theatrical management—but arrive on time he did, and he delivered his lines on cue. Incidentally, Boris's cameo role was playing Boris Johnson—a role he had no trouble playing. Boris's ability to make politics and life fun are undeniable, but they should not obscure a man of great intellect and ability who will be much missed in the constituency and will be a hard act to follow.

The Henley constituency occupies much of the area between Reading and Oxford and includes delightful and varied countryside from the Thames to the Chilterns. Its rural tranquillity is maintained by an almost complete absence of mobile telephone reception across large areas, which will no doubt prove a particular challenge for the Whips. Of course, many Members have recently had the chance to experience the constituency, and, I hope, to contribute to its local economy. Indeed, local estate agents are hoping that many will now come back permanently and that this will single-handedly buck any downturn in the property market.

It is a constituency that has played a major role in English history. The abbey at Dorchester-on-Thames was once one of England's premier cathedrals. The town of Thame has managed to retain its market town character despite the pressures of growth, and Henley itself is, of course, famous for its regatta. However, it is one of the anomalies of constituency boundaries that when people attend the regatta they are actually in the constituency of my right hon. Friend Mrs. May. The advantage of this is that it affords them a magnificent vantage point from which to look back into my constituency and the town itself.

Even within this rural idyll, there are problems. Sandwiched between Oxford, Reading and Didcot, the constituency is constantly under pressure from overdevelopment, particularly in the green belt. Funding for any accompanying infrastructure has been difficult to access, and the situation has not been helped by the caricature of the constituency as too healthy and too wealthy. It contains areas of considerable deprivation, such as the village of Berinsfield and, indeed, parts of Henley itself, but it is typical of the public-spirited nature of those who live in the constituency that there are also thriving voluntary and charity sectors.

The network of small rural villages scattered across the constituency illustrates well what the notion of community is all about. They provide the support and caring environment that has made it a joy to live there for 20 years and to have brought up my family there, but despite that, I remain concerned for the future because of the risk to all this from the increasing prospect of rural isolation caused by the steady erosion of local services.

The final stop in this tour of my constituency is RAF Benson, which is one of the UK's main operational helicopter bases, whose staff are operating in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We must never forget that our military capability depends on the good will of service personnel and their families. Local commanders understand that, and I will have no hesitation in holding the Government to account on delivering the fair deal that service personnel and their families rightly require.

May I turn briefly to the subject of the debate, about which I should like to make three short points? First, in his maiden speech, my predecessor said:

"many of my constituents find it very difficult to afford petrol these days".—[ Hansard, 12 July 2001; Vol. 371, c. 1010.]

He said that when the average price of a litre of unleaded was just about 80p. He went on to point out that there was no public transport alternative, with many villages having only one service per week. Seven years later, the situation is, in all senses, considerably worse in an area where the car is a necessity, not a luxury.

Secondly, I shall not argue over whose by-election should take credit for the Government's climbdown over the 2p autumn rise. I think that my constituents would feel that they had a role to play in it, because they regarded their by-election as, in many ways, a referendum on the Government's whole approach to the motorist and will be glad to have forced the Government into that climbdown.

Finally, if the Government find it hard to listen to us or to my constituents, perhaps they ought to listen to those who once would have been their natural allies. Last Friday, I returned to Oxfordshire county council, where, until recently, I held a portfolio that included human resources and its relationship to the unions. I was asked by the secretary of the Oxfordshire county branch of Unison to help draw to the attention of Treasury Ministers a 2,000 signature petition that it had raised on fuel duty. I was told that, for some reason, the union had been unable to find a Labour Member who was willing to do so. One can disagree with the detail of Unison's proposed mechanism to achieve the scrapping of the 2p increase and the further 10p reduction in fuel duty for which it is calling, but it is difficult to disagree with the sentiment it expresses: that pump prices are hurting businesses and individuals, particularly the poorest paid. I am pleased to have been elected to this House at a time when Conservatives are clearly trusted to represent the views of trade unionists, and I thank the House for its indulgence in listening to this speech.