Rochdale MP pays moving tribute to predecessor Sir Tony Lloyd in maiden speech to Parliament

A moving tribute has been paid by the new MP for Rochdale to his predecessor Sir Tony Lloyd.

Paul Waugh won the seat in the General Election in July, seeing off a challenge from the previous MP George Galloway of the Workers Party of Great Britain.

Opening his maiden speech to Parliament by thanking Mr Galloway for his public service he moved on to speak about veteran parliamentarian Sir Tony Lloyd.

The Rochdale seat became vacant when he died of leukaemia in January.

Former journalist Mr Waugh said that Sir Tony "commanded respect across this Chamber."

He went on to say that his "decency, internationalism and compassion are an example to each one of us. As Tony once advised his staffer, now my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Chris Webb), 'If it is not about making people’s lives better, don’t be a politician'."

Sir Tony Lloyd was hailed as a “great man of Manchester” by then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when the House of Commons gathered to pay tributes following his death.

First elected to represent Stretford in 1983, he also served as MP for Manchester Central following boundary changes.

He later returned for a second stint in the Commons and represented Rochdale from 2017.

Sir Tony held the seat for Labour at the 2019 election with a 9,668 majority over the Conservatives.