Opinion: Being local makes this the best job

My family moved to Whittlesey when I was 5. Both my parents were nurses in the NHS in Peterborough. I went to my local school and I lived in West Town.

I remember going to watch Posh for the first time in 1987 standing on the open terrace on Glebe Road. We played Newport County!

I have been a member of the Peterborough Conservative Association for nearly 30 years! I couldn’t believe it when I worked it all out.

When I was elected to this job, I thought I knew Peterborough. But I only knew the Peterborough I knew. The places I went to. The people I met. The places I worked, shopped, drank and ate at. Doing this job introduced me to the Peterborough I didn’t know so well.

Peterborough is home to so many different communities where different languages are spoken. Werrington is different from Walton. Bretton is different from Dogsthorpe. Gunthorpe is different from Longthorpe. Eastfield is different from Millfield. Thorney is different from Newborough which is completely different from Eye.

Peterborough is a place you have to throw yourself into.

I moved away from Peterborough after university, though my parents stayed here. I lived in London for a while but moved back following the end of my first marriage. I still have another house near London where I stay sometimes at the start of the week when in Westminster, and I am able to look after my eldest daughter.

But there was something that always called me back home. Peterborough is where I have been happiest, and where I am happiest now. It makes you campaign so much harder on issues when it is your home. That is the beauty of being a local MP.

That is what surprised me when Labour selected an outsider to be my opponent. Especially when Labour had eminently suitable and high profile candidates locally. I fully expected to be up against the then Labour Leader Shaz Nawaz or former MP Lisa Forbes.

Why Labour thought no one from Peterborough was good enough is a matter for them. But what does surprise me is the Labour candidate telling councillors and others that the next election is a done deal. He is going to win on national issues alone, and local politics doesn’t matter.

Well, I think this is wrong. Being local does matter. Peterborough was one of the only places in the country where the Conservatives made gains in local elections this year and Labour fell backwards.

Since my election in 2019, Peterborough has been awarded just about more capital investment than any other city in England. For our university, for a new Station Quarter, for a new NHS Community Diagnostic Facility, for a new pedestrian bridge over the Nene, for the Cresset and our other theatres, to tackle rough sleeping, for city centre regeneration and for more police. We have turned a corner and we will soon see the benefits. I don’t think any of this would have happened if we just had an outsider who saw Peterborough as a career steppingstone. Our city deserves an MP that puts Peterborough first and understands the concerns, needs and aspirations of our diverse communities.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the election in Peterborough will all be about national issues. But I am going local as well as national. I shall set out my plan for Peterborough. We are turning a corner. Change is coming. Peterborough deserves local politics.