North West Cambridgeshire MP Sam Carling on his whirlwind first three months, Peterborough's potential - and writing his maiden Parliamentary speech at 2am

It has been less than three months has passed since the political landscape in the UK was changed following a landslide win for Labour in the General Election.

In Peterborough, the politics scene has been transformed in the space of less than a year – in September 2023, there was a Conservative run council, and two Conservative MPs (Peterborough and North West Cambridgeshire) – but fast forward 12 months, and Labour now hold all three posts.

One of the biggest stories coming out of election night on July 4 (well, the sun had risen on the morning of July 5 by the time the result came through) was Labour’s Sam Carling claiming the North West Cambridgeshire seat from Conservative Shailesh Vara by just 39 votes after a dramatic recount. The seat had only ever been held by a Conservative, and Mr Vara had been in the post for 19 years.

Along with the huge swing from blue to red, the win also made national headlines as Sam became the youngest MP in Parliament – and the first MP to be born in the 21st century.

The Peterborough Telegraph sat down with the new MP, whose constituency includes much of Peterborough south of the Nene, to discuss his first few months in the job, his journey into politics, and why he is keen for people to forget the ‘youngest MP’ tag.

“What is it like being the youngest MP?’ Well, it is like being an MP"

“It has been a whirlwind. And I think that will continue for some time. In many ways it's still quite surreal.” said Sam.

“I was sitting having my lunch in Serpentine Green just now and someone came up and recognised me and started to have a chat. It's still really weird for that to happen.”

He was thrust into the media spotlight as a result of his age following his win – something he says was ‘surreal.’

He said: “When I see myself on news clips as well, that's very surreal. Especially, that first BBC breakfast interview that I did because that one has gone completely viral online. It got millions of views on Twitter and things like that. It was a bit like ‘who is that guy – he looks quite similar but it feels like a different person looking back.

“We suspected that if I won I would be the youngest MP – I was the youngest Labour candidate with a realistic chance.

"The media have made a fuss about it – no-one else in Parliament has – no one cares, which is much better, because I’d like to be known as a normal MP and get on with my job. I get asked in every interview ‘what is it like being the youngest MP?’ Well, it is like being an MP. Hopefully it will blow over over time."

While some election campaigns across the country were not friendly, the North West Cambridgeshire battle was fought on much kinder terms.

Sam said: “We didn’t have any of that nasty, horrible personal stuff. ”I don’t think Shailesh Vara expected to lose, but he was always very pleasant to me personally. There was a particularly nice moment during the campaign when I was getting a lot of stick online, and he sent a message to say ‘I hope you are doing alright.’

“Everyone was really nice from all the parties. It was a perfect example of how you should run a campaign.”

“I was sat up at two o’clock in the morning writing the speech”

After winning the seat, the hard work really began – and as with many MPs, it is taking time to set up his team – and getting to know his new ‘office.’

Sam said: “I'm still finding my way around Westminster – it is a maze.

"It's a lot bigger than you think because the palace and Portcullis House, and then there's all these other buildings - they're all interconnected with underground tunnels and doors and things.

"Being like Hogwarts is a very good way of putting it.

"We don’t have all our staff yet. It takes time to set up an office. I get a lot of emails from constituents, raising policy, and although important, the answer is not going to change if it comes later, so a lot of those emails do have to be de-prioritised until I get the staff in to deal with them.

"I’ve got two members of staff now, and we are in the advanced stage of recruitment for another two, then there will be one more person coming later, so a full team is on the way. But we are making a lot of progress, especially dealing with all of the case work that is coming in.”

Having a large cohort of Labour colleagues working in Westminster has helped Sam settle in to his new role.

He said: “I have been really impressed by the collegiate atmosphere that we’ve had. We have a constant stream of texts coming through from our website telling us what is going on at a given time. So when the next debate is about to start in the chamber, things like that.

"And one of the things they’ve been doing is that every time someone is about to make their maiden speech, we are sent a text, so people can go in and fill the chamber and support them if it is quiet in there.

“My first speech – I wanted to get it done very early as there are things you can’t do until you’ve done your maiden speech, and it is good to get it done quickly because then you can go speak in Westminster Hall debates, and other things that are quite important.

"I gave it, but because everything was so busy, I was sat up at two o’clock in the morning writing the speech. My hands were a little bit shaky – it is being broadcast on TV, there are a lot of people in the chamber, and it is a big moment.

"Being sworn in was another pinch me moment as well.”

“No MP wants to come in and some of their first actions are to try and save local libraries"

Since his win, Sam has been working with residents in his constituency – but admits it is a tough job, because of the financial situation the City Council finds itself in. He said he knew the pressures local authorities are facing, as he is still a Cambridge City Councillor – but said he was looking forward to helping to push the city forward, with the help of the city council, the Combined Authority, and his fellow Labour MP in the city.

He said: “There are various things about Peterborough that I think are really, really positive and one of them is that we have this diversity of different communities who are incredibly welcoming.

“Andrew (Pakes, Labour’s Peterborough MP), and I have done quite a lot of joint visits to the different religious communities we were at the Hindu temple just recently and the Sikh temple a couple of weeks ago. These different communities are really welcoming you in and think there's a lot we can do to help them with some of the issues that they're facing around expansion and things like that.

"I think Peterborough is a city where a lot of people choose to make their home. Obviously, we've got huge amounts of new communities and development happening here in Hampton, which, you know, is positive in my book. I think it's good for people to be able to come to Peterborough, make their home here.

“I think the situation the council is in is pretty dire. I knew it was quite bad, I've got a background as a councillor myself, I've what local government has been going through, but since being elected and seeing kind of the true picture of what's going on is really, really concerning to me.

“No MP wants to come in and some of their first actions are to try and save local libraries as I'm trying to do in Woodston.

“The council is having to sell off a huge amount of its assets.

“So there is a real issue there on how we turn that around. Obviously Labour’s taken control, so it is a case of how we can save some of those assets that we really want to prioritise.

"It is a huge opportunity for us – you see it in America in particular, when one bit of Government goes the wrong way, you see the whole thing gets paralysed – but when you are all aligned, you can do an awful lot.

"There is a real opportunity here for us to really put forward that positive vision for the city and make a difference, despite the legacy we have been left.

"We have a huge amount of potential here, and a real focus and drive from politicians trying to make something happen.”

One of the big challenges Sam faces in his patch is different types of town, village and city locations included.

He said: “We have the really urban areas – the Flettons, the Woodstons, all those city centre type areas, I’ve got the towns, like Ramsy, Yaxley, and then I have the really rural areas – I kind if have all three, which is really rare for a constituency, and there are lots of different needs in those communities.

"So there are problems with healthcare, as we all know – some of those rural areas do as well, but less so, in a lot of cases, but they have problems with transport.

"Being able to push for what each community needs, is what our job is as MP.”

"It affected me personally when I was in the first cohort of students during the pandemic whose A Level results got cancelled"

Away from work, Sam said he liked to read, cycle and swim – and he still has family ties to his native North East.

He moved to Cambridgeshire to study his degree in pathology.

He said: “I grew up in quite a rural, not too well off area in the North East. I was OK, my family was not bad, my mum is a theatre nurse.

"I went to quite a deprived school that was ravaged by budget cuts, and my high street died a death when I was quite young as well. There were lots of issues like that, that I cared about a lot, but never made the links to Westminster and politics, as I think a lot of people don’t.

"It affected me personally when I was in the first cohort of students during the pandemic whose A Level results got cancelled. That was when everything clicked – all of this stuff that I’m really concerned about and want to fight, is political, so I joined the Labour Party and got involved.

"I ended up running to be a councillor when I was just 20, and then it went quickly from there.

"When I first ran to be a councillor I was in the middle of my degree, and I had thoroughly enjoyed my first year as a councillor. And then I joined the council’s cabinet, and I picked up a portfolio, and devoted more and more time to that, and less and less to my science career. As I was doing that, I realised that that's why I wanted to kind of go full time, where I really enjoyed being the most and devoting a lot of time to politics.

Sam said his background in education and science meant that they would be two of his priorities as an MP – something he referenced in his maiden speech in Parliament.

He said: “I think there are three main areas for me, that are emerging, thus far. There is education, there is science and technology, because that's my background. And there is the local government and housing communities, which is also my background. So it'll kind of be there's that sort of triangle and I'll sit somewhere in there.

"I was a trustee of Cambridge University for a couple of years, so I've got quite a lot of experience of the higher education sector. I did teach at Cambridge for a while, and I did sort of teaching when I was a big younger as well, So I've kind of seen the education system from both sides. I've seen what's happened over the last 14 years first hand. And I've seen it from the other side as well, kind of the management and the teaching sides. So I think there's a lot of experience there that I can bring to education policy that hopefully I'll be able to.”