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Gordon Brown is our newLabour Prime Minister
On Wednesday 27th June Gordon Brown became our new Labour Prime Minister in one of the most dramatic days at Westminster I have witnessed as your MP.
Tony Blair's final Prime Minister's Questions was an incredible spectacle and it was a privilege to see this moment of history
unfold. When all sides, including the opposition stood to give him an ovation I knew I was witnessing one of the great Parliamentary
occasions.
What a day! Gordon's stirring speech outside No 10 was delivered with passion and showed he is a man focussed on doing his best for Ipswich and our
country. I've put his words on the next page.
I am proud that I supported Gordon to become Prime Minister because I know that he offers
a new government with new priorities. Gordon also knows that the best preparation for governing is not meetings in Whitehall. To govern for the people you need to listen to
them. And Labour's starting point will always be
the concerns, struggles and rising aspirations of hard working families.
Gordon's visits across the country and talking with myself and other MPs have confirmed that there are new challenges today – challenges very
different and more pressing to that Labour must respond to, like:
· Young couples frustrated
they cannot buy their first home, or who need to move on from cramped conditions
· Nurses and NHS staff who
feel they don't have enough time with the patients
· Mothers and fathers,
struggling to balance work, family and childcare, who want to be better parents and who want the best schools for their kids their children, and – struggling with work, family and childcare – want
to be better parents for their children
· Families who want to do the
right thing for our environment and who want to know that their choices contribute makes a difference in the global struggle against climate change
· Citizens who yearn for
stronger families and stronger communities and are ready to help build them
· Elderly citizens seeing the
fast pace of change around us and anxious to know how we can protect and strengthen the British way of life. These are the challenges that Labour must address and I know Gordon is the man to do it.
Chris Mole MP
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Gordon Brown's maiden speech as Prime Minister made outside No 10 Downing Street on 27 June 2007
I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen to form a government. This will be a new government, with new priorities, and I have been
privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country. And at all times I will be strong in purpose, steadfast in will, resolute in action, in the service of what
matters to the British people, meeting the concerns and aspirations of our whole country.
I grew up in the town that I now represent in Parliament. I went to the local school. I wouldn’t be standing here without the opportunities that I
received there and I want the best of chances for everyone. That is my mission. That if we can fulfil the potential and realise the talents of all our people, then I am absolutely sure
that Britain can be the great global success story of this century.
As I have travelled around the country and as I have listened and I’ve learnt from the
British people, and as Prime Minister I will continue to listen and learn from the British people, I have heard the need for change. Change in our NHS. Change in our schools. Change with
affordable housing. Change to build trust in government. Change to protect and extend the British way of life.
And this need for change cannot be met by the old politics. So I will reach out beyond narrow party interest. I will build a government that uses all
the talents. I will invite men and women of good will to contribute their energies in a new spirit of public service to make our nation what it can be.
And I’m convinced that there is no weakness in Britain today that cannot be overcome by the
strengths of the British people. On this day, I remember words that have
stayed with me since my childhood and which matter a great deal to me today. My school motto: I will try my utmost. This is my promise to all of the people of Britain. And now let the work of change begin.
Thank you.
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Leadership Special
