Nadine Dorries has paid a touching tribute to murdered Tory MP David Amess, revealing his final letter to her pleaded for assist making Southend a metropolis – a marketing campaign that has been accomplished in his reminiscence.
The brand new Tradition Secretary shared a letter despatched by the Southend West Tory earlier than he was killed final week.
In it he congratulated on her promotion to exchange Oliver Dowden in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle, including: ‘Let’s now make Southend a metropolis!’
In her tweet, Ms Dorries wrote: ‘It’s taken me some time to get via the publish in my Parliamentary workplace.
‘Simply opened this letter from David, in his true model, asking me to make Southend a metropolis.
‘It occurred David, it occurred.’
The brand new Tradition Secretary shared a letter despatched by the Southend West Tory earlier than he was killed final week.
In it he congratulated on her promotion to exchange Oliver Dowden in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle, including: ‘Let’s now make Southend a metropolis!’
The letter was despatched a month in the past to Ms Dorries’ parliamentary workplace
The Queen granted Southend metropolis standing on Monday in tribute to Sir David, the veteran politician who led a decades-long marketing campaign for it to be bestowed on the seaside city.
Boris Johnson introduced the transfer within the Commons as he led passionate cross-party tributes within the Home to one of many ‘nicest, kindest and most mild’ of parliamentarians.
Southend was certainly one of a number of cities competing for metropolis standing as a part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June subsequent yr, with Sir David having pushed for the popularity for at the very least twenty years.
With a inhabitants of round 183,000, Southend is a big coastal city and is residence to the longest pleasure pier on the planet, Southend Pier, measuring 1.33 miles. It additionally has London Southend Airport lower than two miles north of the city centre.
Cities traditionally had been settlements with cathedrals, which is why small locations akin to Ely in Cambridgeshire and Salisbury stay cities. However having a cathedral is not an official requirement for a city-aspiring city. Lately, cities have been capable of apply to the Authorities for metropolis standing through competitions by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Native Authorities.
On the final competitors, held to honour the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee 9 years in the past, three cities had been granted metropolis standing – Perth, Chelmsford and St Asaph. In 2002, Preston grew to become a metropolis, whereas Brighton and Wolverhampton had been granted the improve to mark the flip of the millennium.