Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home.

I'm your host, Alan Tolhurst, and this week, with so many new MPs in Parliament,

we're taking a look at maiden speeches, the first time a new parliamentarian speaks in the chamber.

What makes a good one? How do you write and deliver one? And what they say about the MP that makes it? To talk us through about getting through that tricky first

endings in the comments, I'm delighted to say I'm joined by two more members of the 2024 intake,

who have both run the gauntlet already. Jeevan Sander, the Labour MP for Loughborough and Julia Buckley,

the Labour Member for Shrewsbury. And alongside them we have Paul Richards, author of the new book How to Write a Parliamentary Speechwriter, as well as Rob Hutton, journalist and parliamentary sketchwriter,

who has sat through more than his fair share of common speeches over the years.

But I can start with you, Paul, you just talk us through quickly, what makes a good speech

in the commons? They're kind of the general principles, move on to maiden speeches later on,

but what kind of the general principles when you're writing a speech for an MP?

I think the big dilemma is that there are so many new Labour MPs now and other MPs as well of other stripes that is what makes it stand out.

We've had parliamentary days where there's just been an endless procession of new maiden speeches being delivered.

And there's plenty more still to go as well.

And there's still hundreds of still to come.

And they're just becoming a bit of samey.

And the danger is that they come and they go without touching the side.

So the dilemma for the member is to stand out from the crowd, to have something that they're really proud of and memorable that establishes them and their credentials and their possible future interests, but without straying into the dangerous territory of being controversial,

which of course a maiden speech should not be.

Interesting. Rob, can you think of any that stuck in the memory, both of this intake

and of previous intakes as well? I mean, I have to be honest, not many maiden speeches do stick in the

memory. Like other first times, it's exciting for you, but nobody else wants to hear about it.

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