00:00 My Lords, it is a tremendous privilege to make my maiden speech in your Lordships'
00:06 House. It has been quite the journey getting to this moment, and I am immensely grateful
00:12 for the guidance and advice that so many noble Lords have offered me. I am especially grateful
00:19 to my noble friends and supporters, Lady Foster of Oxden and Lady Meyer, and my noble friends
00:26 and wonderful mentors, Lady Morris of Bolton and Lady Sackham. I would like to express
00:32 my gratitude to Blackrod, the clerks, the doorkeepers, everyone who works in the House,
00:39 and the special advisers who have helped me navigate my first few weeks in the role. I
00:45 am also most grateful for the friendship and support of all my friends in the other place,
00:51 who I have had the honour of working with for a number of years. A peerage is both an
00:58 honour and a responsibility. It is a responsibility I take incredibly seriously. It is testament
01:06 to the high level of discourse in this place that debate can be robust yet incredibly collegiate.
01:14 I have been overwhelmed by the welcome of noble Lords across your Lordships' House,
01:21 all of whom have said how important it is for younger voices to be part of your Lordships'
01:28 deliberations.
01:29 I am part of a generation whose unique opportunities are also accompanied by new challenges, from
01:37 the difficulty of getting on to the housing ladder to the spiralling cost of university
01:43 debt to the complexities of living in a social media age to the very real fear over our climate.
01:51 We live in a time of great change. It is a confusing time. It is also a time of instability
01:59 and anxiety. This is perhaps so for everyone, but it is surely so for the young.
02:07 I was born in 1993. George Michael was still at No. 1, and the Spice Girls were about to
02:16 set in motion a wave of girl power. I am a child of the dial-up internet connection,
02:23 when mobile phones were only for phone calls, and the World Wide Web was about to be launched
02:29 to the public.
02:32 Throughout my life, I have witnessed not only the benefits of our ever-closer relationship
02:37 with technology, but sadly also the threats that such advances can bring. This is an issue
02:44 of great and increasing concern to me, as I am sure it should be to us all.
02:50 I have followed with great interest the Online Safety Bill. This Bill represents a landmark
02:57 in online safety, and I was delighted that my vote contributed to making the UK one of
03:03 the safest places in the world to be online—something of which this Government should be hugely
03:09 proud. However, the online world is evolving at pace, and we should not be complacent.
03:18 I am greatly encouraged that the UK has shown leadership by hosting the first global summit
03:24 on artificial intelligence, and that the gracious speech reaffirmed the UK's commitment to
03:30 leading international discussions to ensure its safe development.
03:36 I look forward to addressing both the challenges and opportunities that technology, and in
03:41 particular AI, presents. I must also thank the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson,
03:49 who put a great deal of trust in me. I will be forever grateful not only for this, but
03:55 for his kindness and encouragement. I feel immensely privileged to have worked with him
04:01 and other Cabinet Ministers during my time at No. 10. I was delighted that his commitment
04:08 to delivering the referendum result, his optimism, his vision for levelling up the country and
04:14 for ensuring that life chances are fairly distributed, resulted in the seismic election
04:19 victory of 2019.
04:24 I wish to take a moment to pay tribute to my parents, and especially my dear late father.
04:31 Born in Anston in 1930, he was a child during the war and would often tell me of the horrors
04:37 of those days, such as the time he went cycling with his brother and they had to jump off
04:42 their bikes and take cover as a Messerschmitt 109 machine gun a passing freight train. Another
04:49 time the windows of his family home were blown out when the House opposite took a direct
04:55 hit during the Manchester Blitz. Despite this, my father always had a positive outlook on
05:02 life. I like to think that this is a quality he instilled in me. He did not even complain
05:08 when his retirement plans changed because of my arrival in the world. When I was a small
05:14 girl, he would often tell me it was possible to achieve anything that I put my mind to.
05:22 It was aspiration and the desire to get on in life that helped shape my parents' politics.
05:28 My mother has told me of how her own parents' lives changed when Margaret Thatcher's Government
05:34 gave them the opportunity to buy the council house in Alderley Edge, allocated to my grandfather
05:40 on his return from the war—a policy I am sure most of your Lordships remember and for
05:45 which some of your Lordships were perhaps responsible. My grandmother was so delighted
05:51 by this policy that she went around knocking on all her neighbours' doors to let them
05:56 know about this life-changing opportunity. Owning their own home up until that point
06:03 was beyond their wildest dreams. It seems that levelling up was alive and well decades
06:10 ago. It is vital that we create a climate where younger generations have the chance
06:19 of home ownership, so that they too can feel secure for their future.
06:26 I end where I began, with thanks, and express my gratitude to all noble Lords for the warmth
06:33 of their welcome and the kindness shown to me. During my time in your Lordships' House,
06:40 I hope to repay that kindness.
06:44 Amen.
06:45 [Applause.]
06:46 [End of session.]
06:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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