At shortly after 6am on Friday 5th July my life would change forever…
… when I was elected as your first Member of Parliament for the new Mid Leicestershire constituency.
As we approach the end of 2024, I reflect on my first six months as your MP and give a few of my personal thoughts on the ‘good, the bad, and the ugly’ of life as a newly elected Member of Parliament.
Firstly, this is not a job. It is a lifestyle. For all the criticisms, and rightly so at times, being a Member of Parliament is more than a job it is all encompassing on one’s life. It is the honour of my life to have been elected, and I knew what I was getting myself into, but it would be remiss to not mention the huge expectation gap that exists between what is expected of MPs and what we can always deliver within the confines that we operate. The physical, and mental, strains are like nothing that I have experienced before; and I have a newfound respect for fellow MPs (of all parties!) for the work that parliamentarians do often 14 hours+ a day, 6 or 7 days a week!
The Good
The best part of being an MP is being able to champion the causes that matter most; not just to me, but to my constituents. In my maiden speech I highlighted three issues that I would be specifically focussing on, namely:
- Social Mobility – ensuring that it truly doesn’t matter who you are, or where you were born, but that your talents determine your success in life.
- Work & Skills – that the foundations of a strong and successful society are based on providing the right training and skills, so that you can build a career, own you own home, have a family, and contribute to the local community.
- Dignity at the end of life – we are all living longer, but many often die a prolonged and undignified death. I believe that we should all have a greater say and control over our final days, and that a compassionate society should afford this to those with a terminal illness.
Serving as an MP has enabled me to vocalise these causes on the national stage; raise questions with ministers and to advocate for changes in policy that I believe would create a more just and prosperous society.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of being an MP is getting to meet so many wonderful people; constituents, charities, and campaign groups, many with altruistic motives in wanting to improve the world that we all share.
Some of my meetings have included:
- Disability rights campaigners such as Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and local constituent Simon Sansome;
- Parish, Borough, District and County Councillors who want the best for their communities.
- Charities such as AGE UK, MND Association, Prostate Cancer UK, who do so much locally to support some of the most vulnerable in society;
- Farmers, and small business owners who support rural areas like ours;
- Students and schoolchildren with challenging and though-provoking questions to keep newly elected MPs like me on our toes;
- Police and service-personnel who do so much to keep us safe;
- Library and Community Groups who voluntarily support our local communities.
Spending typically four days a week in Parliament is a real privilege. To work from the Palace of Westminster is an honour not bestowed on many and this is something that I think about each and every week. Since my election I have shown over a dozen groups around the Palace of Westminster and each time I learn something new about this amazing building steeped in centuries of history!
The Bad, and the Ugly
Coming from a private sector background the most frustrating part of being an MP is the glacial pace that anything happens in Parliament; be it from the basics of getting your printer fixed through to more important issues such as responses from government departments - the pace at which Parliament operates is, to be generous, slow.
Like any public-sector institution there is a form (usually in triplicate) for everything, and like many large organisations “office politics” invariably features. One such example is the madness of MPs sharing their small offices with 3 or 4 staff members, whilst there are many many vacant offices not in use. This criminal inefficiency being down to the fact that if a political party does not fully utilise their allotted office space it is simply left empty and not made available to MPs from other parties. Such gross inefficiency and waste or resource irks my private-sector mentality – a theme that runs throughout my many frustrations of how Parliament operates.
Despite this Parliament is full of wonderful, and hard-working public servants; I think in particular of the Speakers Office, the Doorkeepers, and Table Office. All of whom have been exemplary in their help and support to new MPs like me over the last 6 months.
Finally, there is often an expectations gap between what some constituents want and what an MP can deliver. One such example is, at times, the view that an MP should simultaneously be in Parliament, in the Constituency, at a Westminster Hall debate, at a public event, and responding to emails all at the same time!
This being said…
…I repeat my opening paragraph that being elected as your MP is the honour of my life, and despite the long hours, the complaints, the many frustrations it is the best job that I have ever had.
