The Rt Hon Sir George Young Bt CH MP was the guest speaker at Stevenage Conservatives Annual Dinner when he took the call from the Prime Minister asking him to become the new Chief Whip.

Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage said, "The atmosphere was electric and everyone knew something was happening. There was a huge round of applause when the new post was announced.  Everyone was very pleased Sir George had accepted our invitation to speak when Leader of the House of Commons, then arrived at our event as a backbencher after the reshuffle and was leaving as Chief Whip."

Stephen added, "Sir George is a real gentleman and insisted on giving his speech to our guests before he returned to London to take up position as Chief Whip. I am sure we will have a queue of people wanting to speak next year as they hope a little of our Stevenage luck rubs off on them."