Mr Speaker, Rt Hon John Bercow MP and Patron of the Patchwork Foundation announced the winners of the MP of the Year Awards 2017 sponsored by KPMG at Speakers House on 15^th November 2017, for those MPs who have represented and work well with underrepresented, deprived and minority communities across the country.

Angela Rayner MP said: “When I was first elected in 2015 I envisaged having a couple of years finding my feet on the backbenches. Fate had other ideas!  To have been promoted so quickly was a huge honour and I’m truly grateful to the Patchwork Foundation for the recognition I have been afforded through this award.  Unfortunately people with my kind of background are still uncommon, not just at senior levels in the political sphere but in the House in general. The work of the Foundation is important in addressing this imbalance and making Parliament truly representative of the Country it governs.”

Labour Party Leader Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP said: “I congratulate Angela Rayner MP and all the 2017 winners of the Patchwork MP of the Year awards.  The Patchwork Foundation works all year round to ensure young people from deprived and minority communities believe in themselves and understand the power they have to take part in our democracy.  I know Labour MPs really appreciated the work Patchwork activists did during the general election and I was delighted to thank Patchworkers personally after my Leader’s speech at the Labour Party conference in Brighton.”