He couldn't read or write until he was 11 - now he has a top job earning £90k (original) (raw)

In his maiden speech to Parliament Steve Witherden did all the things new MPs should, but he also told two deeply personal stories. One about how his mum died just hours after he took his seat in parliament for the first time, and the second about how, until the age of 11, he was unable to read or write and was totally illiterate.

His first few months have been, he admits, "hectic" since the former teacher and trade unionist was selected as the Labour candidate for Montgomeryshire in November. Most people would not have said the seat was a serious target for Labour but then the constituency, and the former MP, became a seat the whole country was talking about when it emerged incumbent candidate Craig Williams had bet on the date of the election and was facing separate investigations by police and the gambling commission.

Eventually abandoned by the Conservative party which withdrew its support for him, Mr Williams came third with a 35% drop in his support and behind the Reform candidate who got 20% of the vote, and it was Labour's Steve Witherden who was elected.

Steve says he always thought the constituency would be close because under the boundary review, the new Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr constituency took on some Labour heartlands. He had never stood for political office before standing for the Labour nomination for the parliamentary election.

He said: "All my adult life has been working in public service, in education, and elected roles as a lay representative in a trade union. I always had an interest in politics, have been active in Clwyd South Labour Party for sure for some time and was the vice chair of Cefn Branch Labour Party. So, it just seemed like the next step".

However, instead of spending the summer relaxing as his teaching colleagues were, the now MP was starting a new job. The excitement and joy however was tempered on his first day in Westminster when parliamentary staff in the Commons chamber had to give him a message that he needed to get back to Wales as his mother was dying.

She died in the early hours of the following day with her son at her side. In his maiden speech to Parliament Steve told his new colleagues he believed his mother had weeks to live before he was called out of the Commons chamber on July 9 - the first day Parliament met after the General Election - to learn it was just hours.

Steve Witherden celebrates his win and being elected as Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr MP (Image: Steve Witherden)

"In those final weeks of the short campaign, I think my mother had perhaps not told me how ill she was. I also believe that even in a period of deathly illness, she may have used her unforgettable influence, a three-line whip of her own, to try to persuade my sisters and father to not tell me just how ill she was. I would have done the same had our roles been reversed.

"I thought we had weeks, but after Black Rod and during the Speaker's speech on the ninth, I was called out of the chamber and told we had hours. Thanks to the efficiency of the staff here in this building, to whom I'm eternally grateful, I was able to get straight back on a train to Wales in time."

He also praised staff at Wrexham Maelor Hospital for their "exemplary care" and thanked them for ensuring he could see his mother before she died, adding: "Not suffering or in distress, to tell her that I love her and to hold her hand while she passed away."

Speaking to WalesOnline after his first few weeks, Steve said: "It was two very stressful things to be going through at the same time. To lose a very, very close family member, that's always going to be incredibly difficult. Starting a completely new job, a long way away from where you live is always going to be very, very difficult. So to have those two things happening at the same time, it was tough.

"I did want to come back sooner, but it was the right thing to stay back up in the constituency. I have a 10-year-old daughter who was very close to her granny. So it was the right thing to do."

Steve Witherden and supporters on the campaign trail (Image: Steve Witherden)

The MP also used his speech to explain how he was "completely illiterate" until the age of 11 and "written off by many". "When nearly everyone thought Montgomeryshire would remain the only seat in Wales never to have a Labour MP, my mother believed I would win it, she never gave up on me - just like she never gave up on believing that I would be able to read one day and make something of myself when I was a boy. I'm glad she got to see me elected because I know it made her very happy," he told the Commons.

Steve was statemented as severely dyslexic when he was in primary school and was completely illiterate. He went to Llantysilio Primary School and would get a taxi to a dyslexia unit in Ysgol Acrefair.

His condition presentation was that when reading, the words on lines merged. "If you're reading and you come to the end of a line and you go to the next line down, that's incredibly difficult because you either go back to the beginning of the line you're on or you jump a line or two lines. I remember there were strategies like bringing like a ruler, ideally something large and transparent to help guide you, and I even used to have to wear glasses with one eye covered." For the latest politics news in Wales sign up to our newsletter here.

With help, Steve's reading came on quickly, but his writing took longer. "There are still words now that I question how to spell," he said. The MP admits talking about his academic struggles was a big risk in parliament. "It was nearly what my students used to call an epic fail, because when you're speaking about something so personal and so emotional, I worried and I thought, I can't break down or cry on this big of a platform and it was a risk but I really wanted to pay tribute to my mum," he said. "I would give my mum a lot more credit than I give myself because she she never gave up on me."

"I can remember as a student being told dyslexia didn't exist by adults and it was a mixed picture because back in the 1990s there were some brilliant ALN teachers who really championed the cause, and promoted teaching and learning which was suitable for students who have dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, things like that. So, yeah, it has come on leaps and bounds. But I mean, having said that, I think there's still more work to be done".

That was Steve's hope in speaking about his journey, to give others hope but to shine a light on what needs to be done to help others. "One of the things that got me into politics was listening to people's lived experiences and thinking about my own lived experiences and how I could bring that to bear and, you know, use this platform and this privilege to benefit people growing up in a in similar circumstances."