I would like to thank all those who last Thursday once more put your faith in me to represent you in Westminster.
I am honoured to have been re-elected as the Member of Parliament for our wonderful area and I will continue to work hard for all of us who call this area home.
Being chosen for the fourth time to be the Member of Parliament for this very special part of Yorkshire is a privilege.
I will do my utmost to work on those issues that you have raised with me over the nine years I have served as your MP.
The election campaign took me to every corner of the UK over six weeks but I was able to get home on a regular basis to meet as many of you as possible at a variety of community events.
From village fetes in Hutton Rudby, Scruton and Great Ayton, to the community arts day in Leyburn and the summer solstice pop-up pub in Potto, I had the opportunity to talk to so many of you about those issues that mattered most to you.
At the Northallerton Homegrown Food Festival – a truly fantastic volunteer-run community event – it was great to see so many people enjoying local food and drink. This event is a truly ‘homegrown’ success.
Breakfast at Leyburn mart gave me the chance to catch-up with local farmers. Farming and the rural economy will always be a priority for me.
A visit to East Harlsey Cricket Club provided a brief but very welcome breather from the election campaign. Watching the home team in the Lady Dorman Cup as the sun went down on the club’s idyllic ground was a real tonic.
Happily, the East Harlsey team won comfortably by seven wickets. It remains an ambition of mine to turn out for one of my local teams like East Harlsey or Kirby Sigston – but given their form at the moment I might struggle to get a game!
At all these events, you confirmed to me that the local issues I have worked on as your MP were the ones that mattered.
So the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton will remain my No 1 priority, ensuring that the reversal in its fortunes we have seen in the last four years continues. That will include working with the wonderful Friends of the Friarage on the group’s current Eye Appeal – to help ensure more treatments can be carried out here rather than Middlesbrough.
I am looking forward to the completion of the £55m integrated care campus at Catterick. I supported the business case for the building of this innovative health centre which again will bring care closer to home for residents of the Richmond area and the Dales.
Improving our local schools, our roads, our mobile phone and broadband coverage will also continue to be my priorities as I serve you and your families for another term.
This is an amazing part of the world with so many special qualities, the most important of which is you all and the communities you live in and sustain.
As I said in the House of Commons this week, Members of Parliament must repay the trust placed in us. It is an honour, privilege and responsibility to continue to represent all of you.
