Welsh Labour MP dedicates maiden Commons speech to late mother who ‘never gave up on me’

A Welsh Labour MP has dedicated his first House of Commons speech to his mother following her death just days after he was elected.

Steve Witherden said he was glad his mother, Sally, had got to see him elected as the MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, telling the Commons: “I know it made her very happy.”

MPs heard Mr Witherden believed his mother had weeks to live before he was called out of the Commons chamber on July 9 – the first day Parliament met after the General Election – to learn it was just hours.

He returned to Wales and was able to spend time with her before she died.

Mr Witherden, a teacher since 2005, made his maiden speech during a debate on education and opportunity.

Kindness

Speaking in the Commons, he said: “I’d like to thank the House and all of the staff of all the political parties for the kindness and support I have received after the recent death of my mother a fortnight ago today.

“In those final weeks of the short campaign, I think my mother had perhaps not told me how ill she was.

“I also believe that even in a period of deathly illness, she may have used her unforgettable influence, a three-line whip of her own, to try to persuade my sisters and father to not tell me just how ill she was. I would have done the same had our roles been reversed.

“I thought we had weeks, but after Black Rod and during the Speaker’s speech on the ninth, I was called out of the chamber and told we had hours.

“Thanks to the efficiency of the staff here in this building, to whom I’m eternally grateful, I was able to get straight back on a train to Wales in time.”

He praised staff at Wrexham Maelor Hospital for their “exemplary care” and thanked them for ensuring he could see his mother before she died, adding: “Not suffering or in distress, to tell her that I love her and to hold her hand while she passed away.”

‘Completely illiterate’

Mr Witherden, who earlier noted he was “completely illiterate” until the age of 11 and “written off by many”, said: “When nearly everyone thought Montgomeryshire would remain the only seat in Wales never to have a Labour MP, my mother believed I would win it, she never gave up on me – just like she never gave up on believing that I would be able to read one day and make something of myself when I was a boy.

“I’m glad she got to see me elected because I know it made her very happy.

“And if it’s permissible, I’d like to dedicate this maiden speech to my mother.”

Labour’s Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury), who was the next MP called to speak, expressed her sympathies to Mr Witherden.

She said: “I’m so sorry and sad to learn of that and may I congratulate you on a wonderful maiden speech.”

New Deputy Speaker Judith Cummins later visited Mr Witherden on the backbenches, with the pair having a short chat.