“We are a resilient city and we will always fight back” – Kim Johnson’s maiden speech

Below is the full text of the maiden speech delivered by the recently elected Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, Kim Johnson, in parliament on March 11th.

Thank you, madam deputy speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech during this Budget debate. I am honoured and privileged to have been elected as the MP for Liverpool, Riverside, and to represent the constituency in which I was born, grew up and still live. My roots go very deep and long in the community. I am immensely proud to have been elected as the first black MP for Liverpool. My proudest moment, though, is giving birth to my amazing twins, Kyle and Layla.

I take this opportunity to thank my constituents and the Riverside Constituency Labour Party for putting their faith and trust in me and working tirelessly throughout my campaign. My predecessor, Dame Louise Ellman, held the seat for 22 years. She was a hard-working constituency MP, who supported many constituents with immigration cases and prevented deportations, and she was a long-serving member of the transport committee. I wish her well in her retirement.

My fellow scouse MPs — Paula, Ian and Mickey — provide daily support and lots of laughs, and without them this would be a very lonely place. Being a politician was never on my bucket list. I grew up in an ordinary working-class family, the granddaughter of immigrants from West Africa and Dublin. I am the eldest of five. My mum and dad both worked — my dad in construction, my mum in factories and latterly as a cleaner. We did not go away on holiday or have a car. I lived in a terraced house with an outside toilet.

Sadly, my dad, Joseph Johnson, died in 1981 when he was 51, leaving my mum, Kathy, widowed at 41 with five kids. I attended an all-girls school in a working-class area where aspiration was in short supply and teachers had very few expectations of us. We were not encouraged to consider university or a professional career, and yet here I am, a working-class black woman in this House, which was never created for people like me, the member of parliament for Liverpool, Riverside.​

I know that I am biased, but Liverpool is the best city in the world, and known to many globally. The history of Liverpool can be traced back to 1190. The city was created in 1207, when King John granted a royal charter. Liverpool was once the second city of empire, eclipsing even London for commerce. Its growth as a major port was paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the industrial revolution.

Liverpool’s wealth was built on the back of the slave trade, with thousands of slave ships leaving the port over many years. The city has a shameful history of slavery and exploitation. The trading in human lives made Liverpool rich and powerful, leaving a permanent mark for generations to come. In 1999, the city council made an unreserved apology for the city’s role in the slave trade. Liverpool is a port city and has a long-established diverse population, with the oldest black community in the UK and the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Black people continue to be significantly under-represented across the public and private sectors—in education, health, housing, and at all levels of political and civic engagement.

Liverpool, Riverside is a very diverse constituency with some quite affluent wards, and others with high levels of multi-deprivation—some of the poorest wards in the country. It covers the city centre and the waterfront. There are two cathedrals, three universities, the major arts and cultural organisations, and three hospitals—one yet to be completed due to the collapse of Carillion, with patients cared for in a building that is not fit for purpose.

Liverpool’s waterfront was designated a world heritage site by UNESCO in July 2004 as a result of the city’s significance as a commercial port at the time of Britain’s greatest global influence. With the most listed building outside London, the city’s heritage is clearly visible, but our achievements go much further than bricks and mortar. In 2008 Liverpool was declared European capital of culture, which has contributed to a major renaissance in the city.

I cannot talk about Liverpool without mentioning football. Liverpool is the most successful footballing city in England, home to both Liverpool and Everton football clubs, and I do not need to say how fabulously well Liverpool have been doing this season. Although most people will know that The Beatles came from Liverpool, what most people will not know is that Liverpool is a very unique city that does things very differently.

We are a city of many firsts, and I will name just a few. We had the first subscription library in England. In 1842, Kitty Wilkinson founded the world’s first public baths and wash houses. Football nets were used for the first time in 1890, after being invented by Liverpool city engineer John Brodie. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine was the first in Britain when it opened in 1899. The first school for the blind was established in Liverpool, and the RSPCA, NSPCC and Age Concern all evolved from the city.

Liverpool is now the seventh most visited city in the UK, with tourists bringing £3.6bn of revenue to the city every year. Our tourism industry currently employs about 50,000 people. However, despite all of this, the city has the highest unemployment rate of any British city when hidden unemployment is taken into account. We have suffered as a result of managed decline during the Thatcher years.

The city has been ravaged by ten years of draconian austerity measures; we have had 64% of our budget stolen from us, equating to a loss of £450m, with more people now reliant on food banks, greater ​levels of in-work poverty and children going hungry during school holidays. Last summer, the city council fed 30,000 kids in its summer lunch scheme. We are the fifth richest country in the world. We should not be in this position.

While the most vulnerable have been penalised with pernicious welfare benefits changes, the rich have been rewarded with tax breaks, but we are a resilient city and we will always fight back. Before I was elected as an MP, I worked for social services at Liverpool City Council, and I saw on a daily basis the impact that these harsh cuts had on the city. What we needed from the Budget today was greater provision for local government and adult social care, but I did not hear anything about levelling up for my constituents in Riverside.

I am a very proud scouser and a socialist, and I intend to spend my time in this House holding the government to account and being the voice of my constituency, challenging social injustice and inequality at every turn. The constituents of Liverpool, Riverside, particularly young people, need the hope of a better future.