New Southport MP Patrick Hurley has used his first ever speech in Parliament to promise to work to reopen Southport Pier and improve Southport town centre, “whose main streets need more than their fair share of love and attention”.
Southport’s first ever Labour MP, who was elected during the General Election on 4th July 2024, also vowed to “do my utmost to make sure that Southport’s best days lie ahead of it, that the decline of recent years will be arrested” during his Maiden Speech in the House Of Commons.
Patrick Hurtley said: “My predecessors in previous Parliaments have talked about how they have felt that Southport has sometimes been taken for granted or taken advantage of, and so have subsequently sought to discuss and elevate divisions between the towns of the local borough.
“I wish to assure my constituents that I will take a different approach. Instead, I will work to ensure that our country’s new Government will not look to cause divisions with our neighbours, whether they be other countries thousands of miles away or even other towns just a few thousand yards away.
Southport Pier. Photo by Andrew Brown Stand Up For Southport
“Instead, I will work with colleagues to ensure that the Government will look to unite our country in the task of national renewal, because the politics that I believe in is a politics of the common good—a politics where each of us looks out for the wellbeing of the other, rather than tries to do others down.
“Many towns and villages in this country have seen better days than over the past few years. Southport is no different.
“Whereas other areas have had, for instance, much-needed housing not built, or much-needed transport links not implemented—two issues that I am pleased to see the new Government are planning to address – Southport’s problems have manifested themselves in the temporary closure of the town’s much-loved pier, and in the town centre, whose main streets need more than their fair share of love and attention.
“I promise to work with colleagues in this House and beyond to fix these issues.
“The new Government’s priority on economic growth is entirely the right approach. Unless we get the trend rate of growth back to pre-2008 levels, our task in this Parliament of reducing poverty will be much harder. The Government have my full support in their approach.
“I wish it to be known that I will do my utmost to make sure that Southport’s best days lie ahead of it, that the decline of recent years will be arrested and that the town’s fortunes will be turned around, and that I will work with good people of good faith to bring that about, no matter what their party affiliation.”
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