Jon Trickett's victory speech after winning Normanton and Hemsworth in the 2024 general election

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, Mr Attorney Officer. All of the staff that have helped to make democracy work in Wakefield today.

00:06To all of you who are still here patiently waiting for me to finish my speech, to get back for your breakfast and back to work, no doubt.

00:14To my brilliant team, thank you. To the police, I shouldn't have said. To the police, thank you for keeping us safe and secure.

00:22To my brilliant team, led by my agent Pauline and myself, who have helped us so well, and everybody else who helped us.

00:29We have an enormous number of volunteers. Thank you so much.

00:38And to the villagers of the south-east of Wakefield, the red villages I always call them,

00:44who in every time there was a fight for justice, were there on the side of justice and fairness.

00:51I thank them. I've learned all of my qualities, though I came into becoming an MP later in life, from those villagers.

01:00And now to be a part of a non-electoral community too, it's a wonderful place, I've discovered.

01:07And I know that Yvette comes after it very well in the years that she was the MP there too.

01:12What a great place. And to the non-electoral community in particular, non-electoral MParty in particular, I thank you.

01:19And what did I learn from the villagers as I was going round, because six weeks campaign, knocking on doors, meeting people,

01:27is a learning experience, it's a humbling experience.

01:31What we saw were the food banks, where people who, sometimes two-person families at work,

01:39are unable to feed themselves because of the way the toys have left this country.

01:45To the clothes banks, where we encountered people who were unable, although they were at work,

01:51to put clothes on their children to go to school.

01:54What a disgraceful kind of set-up we saw as we went round our constituency.

02:00Of course we know about it, because in our jobs as MPs, we can account for that a lot.

02:05But it's chastening to those people who are fighting to protect the green balance and the environment which is precious to them.

02:12The old miners who were going out for a breath of fresh air and were the threat of losing green belts.

02:19And to all the people who are fighting for a better world, for a better Wakefield, for the better villages,

02:25I salute all of them. That is why we are in business.

02:29And now the most amazing thing is to see one Tory seat after another falling tonight.

02:37What an experience. This is history in a way.

02:45And to all of us, we're going to be able to say, we were out there that night when that happened.

02:50We made it happen.

02:58And can I just say to the old miner I met,

03:02he said, I want politicians to say what they mean, and mean what they say.

03:07I will honour that requirement from them.

03:10I'm a blunt-spoken Yorkshire man, and I will be there doing what I can to fight for justice.

03:17The country has voted for change on a historic scale.

03:21We've got to get into Parliament, get our government into office,

03:24and bring about the change which we've promised, and which this country desperately needs.

03:30Thank you very much. The work starts straight away. Thank you.