On Thursday 18 July 2024, Joe Powell held his maiden speech in the House of Commons as the new MP for Kensington & Bayswater. The nine minute video above is well worth watching. Just click on the arrow in the middle.
Joe began his speech by advising all MP colleagues not to have twins at the beginning of an election campaign. “If timing is everything in politics, then this is certainly not a combination I would recommend anyone repeating.”
He then paid tribute to his two predecessors, Felicity Buchan, Conservative MP for the former Kensington constituency, and Dame Karen Buck, Labour MP for the former Westminster North (which the Bayswater and Lancaster Gate wards belonged to), for their hard work with Ukrainian refugees and poor housing respectively.
He highlighted the stark inequalities between different wards in Kensington & Bayswater, with the life-expectancy for a woman born in Notting Dale being 19 years shorter than that of a woman born in Holland Park, and with more than 6,000 children living in poverty and over 3,000 families being on a growing housing waiting list, which has resulted in far too many people feeling that government isn’t working for them. “They see far too many politicians putting political party before country and self interest before community. Trust in government and politicians has plummeted as a result.”
Joe said that one way to improve that trust is to get a grip on the dirty money in luxury property that still stains Kensington & Bayswater. “We still have one of the highest number of anonymously owned properties registered in tax havens in our constituency, with loopholes allowing autocrats and kleptocrats to continue shielding their ownership. Many of those properties sit empty, hurting our local businesses, our schools and hollowing out our sense of community.”
“I’m determined to build on our Kensington Against Dirty Money campaign and continue advocating for London ending its reputation as the dirty money capital of the world and instead become the anti-corruption capital of the world.”
He mentioned the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 as the worst example of what happens when government stops listening to people and transparency and accountability is discarded: “72 people lost their lives in an entirely preventable tragedy, and yet we still do not have truth, justice and change for the bereaved, survivors and affected community.”
He concluded that “Kensington and Bayswater is a special place, making a huge contribution to our national life in so many ways. My hope is that, under this Labour government, we will become a fairer place too, building on our strengths and addressing the inequalities that have held us back. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight — as a QPR fan, I’ve learned over many years to be realistic — but we have an opportunity now to restore trust and faith in government and democracy, and to restore our reputation internationally too.”