Karen Bradley – 2024 Speech on the Loyal Address

The speech made by Karen Bradley, the Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, in the House of Commons on 17 July 2024.

It is an honour to be called in this debate, Mr Deputy Speaker. Let me start by thanking my constituents for putting their faith in me again and returning me to this place for a fifth term.

I want to comment on the previous speeches. There have been some excellent speeches, particularly the three maiden speeches that we have heard. This Parliament is unique, as is every Parliament because each and every one is made up of the Members. We heard today in those maiden speeches that we can have faith that this will be an excellent Parliament, because they showed us that we have some truly great champions for local areas here in Parliament.

I also want to comment on the two opening speeches. The hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) made a wonderful speech to open the debate and propose the Loyal Address. He is one of the kindest Members of Parliament, and it was lovely that he was chosen to be the proposer. I want to pick up on the comments made by the seconder, the hon. Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), about my very good friend Nickie Aiken. We miss Nickie desperately, but we are so pleased that she got her Pedicabs (London) Act 2024 through. It was an achievement for her, and I know that the hon. Lady is also benefiting from that.

I am struck that much in the King’s Speech feels like a process, not an event. I look at many of those Bills, and I go back to when I was a Minister. I think about the work that I did in the Home Office on the violence against women and girls strategy and to strengthen our domestic abuse laws. I am very pleased to see a Bill that we will be working on. We cannot stand still on this issue. We constantly have to keep moving on it, because perpetrators get wise and work out ways to buck the system. I am very pleased to see that that has been included. I am pleased to see a new law on spiking—something that many colleagues were looking to introduce before the general election. I am also pleased that there will be a mental health Bill—something that many of us pushed for. Again, I pay tribute to a previous Member, Dame Jackie Doyle-Price, who was such an advocate for that and raised it on numerous occasions.

I am pleased we will see Martyn’s law introduced. I was the Secretary of State in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport when the Manchester Arena attack happened. It is good to know that from the lessons we have learned from that attack we can take legislative steps to make things safer. I also pay tribute to the progress made from the work of a previous Prime Minister soon to be in the House of Lords, Theresa May. She introduced the race equality audit, which looked closely at what was going on in the public sector and other organisations. Without that work, it would not be possible for a new race equality Bill to be proposed. She was the one who took the issue of Hillsborough seriously. She made sure that we had the full inquiry and have found out the truth. It is quite right that the Hillsborough law will be brought forward.

In the previous Parliament I had the honour of chairing the British group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. I have been heavily involved in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK and I co-chaired the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. It is good to see so many friends from all sides who were involved in those organisations. I would say to any new Members to get themselves involved with these fantastic bodies, which give us an insight into global issues and build connections and links with our friends in Parliaments around the world.

I welcome a new Bill to look at legacy in Northern Ireland. That issue can be tackled only if there is cross-party support on the ground in Northern Ireland. It cannot be imposed from here. We all want a solution to that issue. It was raised time and again at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, so I am glad that it will be looked at.

I am also pleased that there will be a Bill to settle the constitutional status of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. We did start that process, but we could not get it finished and it is incredibly important.

Finally, I will just comment on global issues and the middle east. I have seen at first-hand, through the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, just how difficult these issues are to address. There are disruptors in the world who want to do us harm. They are making sure that the views around the world are the views that they want to see. We need to be incredibly careful and take that very seriously, because we need the hostages released, we need a ceasefire and humanitarian aid in, and we need to ensure that international law is observed.

My final point relates completely to my constituency: the status of the Staffordshire Moorlands. We are a very proud and unique area. We are part of the Peak District national park. We have beautiful Churnet valley, which is desperate for area of outstanding natural beauty status. But we face challenges. We are concerned about what might happen with devolution, as we do not want to be in a unitary authority across north Staffordshire. We want to keep our unique identity. We do not want the green belt between our villages and the city built on. We want powers to ensure that locally elected people make the decisions on solar farm development, battery storage development, pylons and other local matters. I urge the Government: please, no top-down targets; please, no imposition from above. Listen to the people on the ground. This matters to them. Staffordshire Moorlands needs to keep its unique identity.