After fourteen years as our MP, Steve Brine gave his valedictory speech to the House of Commons this evening.
Speaking in the traditional 'matters to be raised before Dissolution' debate, Steve looked back on his fourteen years in Parliament and thanked the key members of his team as well as his family.
He reflected on his time as a Government Whip, Public Health Minister in Theresa May's administration and Chair of the Health & Social Care Select Committee.
"I have won four general elections, and I will be the first and last MP for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford, because the boundary changes will break up the constituency. I have said from the very start that nobody owns Winchester. I would like to think that I won the seat because I worked so hard to get it, and I would like to think that I kept it because I did the job to the best of my ability every single day," he said.
And he closed by saying; "I thank the good people of Winchester and Chandler’s Ford for giving me four in a row. Thank you so much. It has been a great privilege to represent you, and I have always done my best to put the constituency first. Of course, I thank my wife Susie and my children Emily and William, who allowed me to do this in the first place.
"There is a maxim that I try to live by in my life and that I have certainly tried to live by in the House of Commons, and I hope that those coming after me will too: it is nice to be important, but it is much, much more important to be nice.
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Read Steve's final speech in Hansard
