Hannah Spencer, the Green MP who won last month’s Gorton and Denton byelection, has used her first speech in the Commons to call for tolerance and inclusivity, and to argue for more people from manual working backgrounds to be elected to parliament.
Saying she wanted to “make hope normal again”, Spencer used a speech in a debate about International Women’s Day to say she had found out that some children had dressed up for events marking the day at their schools as “Hannah the plumber”, wearing overalls and copying her distinctive hairstyle.
Spencer overturned a 13,000 Labour majority in the byelection, defeating the Reform candidate, Matthew Goodwin, and pushing Keir Starmer’s party to third.
“Four weeks ago today I was in college, a plumber learning how to plaster,” she began on Thursday. “And today I’m in parliament, as an MP. And being here is the honour of my life. But I don’t want this to be unusual or exceptional. I truly believe that anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these benches.”
Echoing a theme of her byelection victory speech, in which she promised to try to unite the various communities of her constituency, Spencer listed a series of local people and groups, saying she would stand up for them all.
“To the girls who I saw photos of who went to school on International Women’s Day dressed as ‘Hannah the plumber’ in their overalls, spanners, and trademark hair. To the women in my life who’ve had my back, who’ve fought for equality alongside me,” she said.
“And to the men that I work with – especially the lads on my plastering course who dealt with my newfound spotlight in the middle of our training very well – but those men who will suffer the effects of this unequal society through their mental health.
“To the veterans I know who were willing to risk everything and come home and find that society was turning its back on them. To the white working classes, who are always lumped into one group and never appreciated.
“To everyone who will have nowhere to sleep tonight, or will barely exist in a cold, damp and insecure home. To my trans siblings who get blamed for everything. To the Muslims everywhere who are constantly and often violently scapegoated.
“To the disabled people who can’t access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable. To the people of colour, who have to work harder at everything.
“I don’t always get it, I won’t say I always understand it. But what I do know is what it feels like to be looked down on. To be let down and left behind. To be less worthy because of something about me.”
Saying her constituency had “suffered decades of neglect and broken promises”, Spencer paid tribute to the work of her predecessor, Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, on tackling health inequalities, pledging to continue this.
In a speech that paid tribute to everyone from the suffragette Elsie Plant, after whom Spencer named one of her greyhounds, to the workers of her constituency, as well as some of its cafes and pubs, the new MP said the lesson of International Women’s Day was that “our struggles may be different, but our humanity is the same”.
She ended: “I want to put Gorton and Denton on the map by championing the positives about our community – the spirit, the warmth, the grit, and the way that we help each other out, every single day.
“Together, we can make hope normal again. And we will look after each other, whoever we are. Because where I’m from, that is just what we do.”
