Lucy Allan has made her maiden speech in Parliament. The town’s new MP used her first speech in Parliament to draw attention to the town’s industrial history and praise its future.
She spoke about Dawley’s Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, and announced that a new film based on his life, The Greatest Englishman, will premiere in the town later this year.
Speaking about the achievements of Captain Webb, Lucy said: “140 years ago, in August 1875 a Dawley man, Captain Matthew Webb, became the first person to swim the English Channel.
“He achieved what everyone thought to be impossible. His first attempt failed. When he tried again, jelly fish, tides, the cold, could not defeat him; finally overcoming the odds, he made it.
“His amazing story has been told in a new film called The Greatest Englishman, The premiere will be held Telford later this year.
At the bottom of Dawley High Street is a monument, to Captain Webb. On it are the words: “Nothing great is easy.”
She also praised the town’s previous MP and welcomed the Government’s extension of the troubled families’ initiative, which works with disadvantaged families to help turn their lives around.
She used the speech to call for more frequent, faster rail services to Birmingham, boosting Telford’s broadband, and protecting the town’s green spaces.
Talking after the speech, Lucy Allan said: “I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to put Telford centre stage and to be able to have raised the needs and concerns of Telford people in Parliament."