Christopher Stalford MLA

Part of Assembly Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 12:15 pm on 21 February 2022.

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Photo of Naomi Long Naomi Long Alliance 12:15, 21 February 2022

I stood in this place less than a week ago. I sat here and had a chat with Christopher about his daughter and her future, as she was transferring from one school to another. I did not expect that I would be standing here this afternoon paying tribute to him in these circumstances, but it does not surprise me at all that my last conversation with him was about his children and his family, because they were at the heart of everything that he did.

Christopher and I met in City Hall. He was elected just four years after me. His fierce debating techniques, his challenging and his points of order were well known to me, both as an opponent who shared his love of debate and in my role as lord mayor, when he often challenged me with points of order. He holds the record for being the only member in City Council whose mic I ever turned off during a debate, and I think that he wore it as a badge of honour. We had very different political backgrounds and very different political views, but we had a lot in common. We both lost our father at a young age. We were both fiercely proud of coming from a working-class background. We both had a passion for the communities in which we grew up that drove us into politics, and we both believed passionately that education was the route by which to lift people permanently out of disadvantage in life. We shared a deep faith. For all those reasons and despite the fact that we were opponents many times — he was a very worthy opponent — we were also friends.

In City Hall, he became high sheriff while I was lord mayor. He was the youngest high sheriff to be elected in City Hall, and we worked very closely together during the six-month overlap in our terms of office. He went on to be deputy lord mayor, and, indeed, he would have been lord mayor had he not been interrupted by his election to the Assembly, because he had been selected by his group to take that role on in 2016. He would have made a fantastic lord mayor, just as he made an incredible Principal Deputy Speaker. There are few people who go through this House or, indeed, City Hall with the same passion for parliamentarianism, the same belief in debate and the same love of the cut and thrust and the drama as Christopher had. I often think that he would have fitted in perfectly not on the current Westminster Benches but perhaps on those of 100 years ago, when the real orators took to the stage and held forth at length. I think that he would have found his home there. He would also have, of course, eschewed anything more modern than about 100 years ago, as was his style. He was somebody who loved the procedures. He loved the politics of this place, but he also loved the public service that led to his being here. He was dedicated to his constituents, dedicated to making their lives better than his had been and to giving them every opportunity. In the Chair, he was fair. He could be fierce. He kept us all in order, including me, which is a handful — I accept that — but he used his wit and his self-deprecating humour. You never felt, when you were stopped or challenged by him, that there was any animosity or personal discord behind it.

His love of his politics, however, was outweighed by his adoration of one woman: Margaret Thatcher. I could never really understand that, but I remember a time when he did something that was particularly liberal: I sent him a little photograph of the Iron Lady and said, "She would be very disappointed in you". He wrote back and said, "You know how to hit a man where it hurts".

[Laughter.]

Above and outweighing his love of Margaret Thatcher, points of order and politics was his love of his family. He had such pride in their achievements, and he was so dedicated to their future. As I said, the last conversation that we had was about Trinity and what would happen to her next. I offer my condolences to Laura, Trinity, Oliver, Cameron and Abigail, and to his mum, brothers and sisters and wider family circle. I do not know how they will start to piece back together what they have lost in Christopher; it will be hard for us in the Chamber, but it will be all the harder for them. I hope that they know that we hold them in our thoughts and prayers, that they have our love and that he, too, had our love and our respect.