Valedictory Debate

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 6:00 pm on 5 November 2019.

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Photo of Jeremy Lefroy Jeremy Lefroy Conservative, Stafford 6:00, 5 November 2019

It is a great honour to follow my friend Stephen Twigg, from whom I have learned a huge amount, both in the time when I served under him on the International Development Committee and, indeed, as a friend.

I would like to echo what my right hon. Friend Sir David Lidington said. In doing so, I quote a former Member of Parliament for Stafford, the great playwright Richard Sheridan, who said:

“remember, now, when you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner.”

I entirely agree with that.

It has been a great honour to represent the people of Stafford for the past nine and a half years. Stafford has a breadth of landscapes, from the Trent valley to Cannock Chase, where we have the beautiful memorials of the cemetery for Commonwealth soldiers, mainly New Zealanders, but also the main German cemetery in the United Kingdom. I would encourage Members to visit that cemetery. It is in the most beautiful valley in Cannock Chase. We have farmlands. We have lovely villages such as Penkridge, and we have Stafford itself. Again, I would encourage Members who have the chance in June or July to see the open-air Shakespeare by Stafford castle—one of the best performances of Shakespeare that you could possibly hope to see, with a different play every year.

I pay tribute to all those in my Constituency who have worked so hard through often very testing times around our hospital, then called Stafford Hospital and now called County Hospital. There were those who lost their loved ones and who saw their loved ones suffer, but also all those who worked in the NHS and tried so very hard, both at that time and subsequently, to give us what is now, I believe, a very good service. That led to the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015, which I had the honour to present as a private Member’s Bill. When I see the work that my right hon. Friend Mr Hunt, the former Health Secretary, has done on patient safety, and the work he is intending to do now with his charity, I am relieved that the issue of patient safety has come to the fore.

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