A new London MP has told how as a child he had a stammer which meant that some days he could not even say his own name.Labour’s David Pinto-Duschinsky, who won Hendon from the Tories at the General Election by just 15 votes, the smallest majority in the country, told MPs in his maiden speech about his previous speaking challenges.“You may have detected by now that I have a slight stammer,” he said.“As a child, I could not even say my own name some days. “Mind you, there are still people who have that trouble today. It is not their fault; it is part-Ashkenazi, part-Sephardi and wholly unpronounceable.“He continued: “But I know that I am not alone in overcoming a stammer: Bevan had one and overcame it by reciting the poetry of William Morris. In my case it was not poetry but the NHS that came to the rescue.
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00:00Now Mr Speaker, sorry excuse me, now Madam Chair even, you may have detected by now that I have
00:05a slight stammer. As a child I could not even say my own name some days. Mind you there are still
00:12people who have that trouble today. It's not their fault, it's part Ashkenazi, part Safadi
00:19and wholly unpronounceable. But I know I'm not alone in overcoming a stammer. Bevan had one
00:26and overcame it by reciting the poetry of William Morris. But in my case it was not poetry but the
00:32NHS that came to the rescue. Dedicated NHS speech therapists worked with me for years
00:37and that means that I can talk to you, that I could stand up in class, stand for Parliament
00:42and be here today. They gave me my voice so I can now give voice to others and I'm determined to
00:49pay this forward fighting for world-class NHS speech therapy for all those who need it.
00:53Treasury bench take note. But Madam Chair we are all beyond lucky to be on these benches
01:00no matter how we got here whether our majorities are 15 or 15,000.