Chip alley, arf'n'arf and Ed Miliband - a new MP speaks

Jo Stevens MP

Cardiff Central Labour MP Jo Stevens

By David Cornock
BBC Wales Parliamentary correspondent

Cardiff's Caroline Street has many claims to fame but it doesn't often feature in Hansard.

New Labour MP Jo Stevens managed to name-check a street known to some as "chip alley" during her maiden speech in the House of Commons.

"Alongside the world's oldest record shop, Spillers, which opened in 1894," she said, "and our beautiful Victorian shopping arcades, we have a famous Caroline Street, where early and late-night city-centre revellers enjoy our special Welsh delicacy of chicken curry, arf'n'arf."

Besides the traditional maiden speech guide to her constituency, she highlighted some of her political priorities: "Throughout the election, I campaigned on the need to tackle inequality head on—wealth inequality, social inequality and tax inequality. I will continue that campaign and be a strong voice for all the people of Cardiff Central."

Ms Stevens has also made her maiden appearance in the Daily Politics studio, where she was questioned about a newspaper interview with Harriet Harman in which the acting Labour leader suggested even some Labour supporters were relieved the party didn't win.

Was Harriet Harman right? Jo Stevens: "I'm afraid I don't recognise what that Independent interview describes. It's the polar opposite to what I experienced on the doorstep as an election candidate in a key seat for Labour over two years.

You can watch Jo Stevens's maiden speech here and read it in Hansard here.

"I think what Harriet is getting at is about persuading floating voters to come over to us and maybe that argument wasn't persuasive enough - clearly in large swathes of the country where there were Tory-Labour marginals that argument didn't work."

Was Ed Miliband the problem?

"Not as far as I was concerned. I think it was because we didn't rebut the Tory argument from 2010 onwards that we messed up the economy, and if we'd done that if, we'd made an an attempt to do it better than we did, I think that would have made a difference."