NEW Richmond MP Rishi Sunak has vowed to make better broadband coverage and “fair” schools’ funding his priorities – but admitted he has a tough act to follow.

The Conservative MP delivered his maiden speech after succeeding William Hague – one of Britain’s “finest parliamentarians” – who served the safe Tory seat for 26 years.

The 34-year-old former businessman promised to be “a champion for the causes of the countryside” and to preserve the strength of the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.

And he told fellow MPs: “Our rural schools require fair education funding to remain the beating hearts of their villages.

“I shall be relentless in pushing for better broadband and mobile phone coverage.

“The farmers who feed us, proud stewards of our landscape, are too often taken for granted and left alone to battle regulation.”

The reference to “fair education funding” comes after reports that dozens of Tory backbenchers are demanding radical changes by the autumn.

There have long been protests that some, mainly inner-city areas receive as much as £7,000 per pupil – while the worst-off rural areas are given just over £4,000.

Ministers first pledged to change the system in 2010 – and gave North Yorkshire and other lower-funded authorities extra cash last year - but have not rewritten the funding formula.

Elsewhere in the speech, Mr Sunak spoke of the “remarkable natural beauty” of his Richmond constituency, boasting part of both the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales.

He told MPs: “Richmond Castle sits magnificently at the heart of the constituency. Built by William the Conqueror, it has witnessed centuries of our nation’s history unfold.

“Further afield in Great Ayton, Captain James Cook grew up and left Yorkshire to explore the world.

“I am also deeply honoured to represent our soldiers, airmen and their families living at RAF Leeming and Catterick Garrison, our largest Army base.

“I will never forget that so many of my constituents have risked their lives to protect this nation so that we can debate here? in peace today.”

Mr Sunak joked that his constituents had accepted him as a non-Yorkshireman, adding: “They were immensely relieved to learn I was not from Lancashire either.”

And he revealed how his aim to “outdo my predecessor” on a visit to a remote village proved impossible – when that predecessor was Mr Hague, the former Foreign Secretary.

Mr Sunak said: “On arrival, I was told that not only had he held a surgery in the village recently, but that the Foreign Secretary had arrived in a Harrier Jet having flown in from meeting with the President of the United States!”